INdiGO Dreams
by Madninja324
Summary: A wiseass sniper, a Faunus with a chip on his shoulder, and a desire for revenge, a Dust Mistress with a dark past, and a swordsman who hates the Grimm obsessively, what do these four teenagers have in common? They are Team INGO, and their survival will depend on their ability to work as a team. Dedicated to Monty Oum as of 2-5-15
1. Prologue 1: Indigo Aesir

**Prologue one: The sniper**

**_Thirty-seven Beowulves, this'll be a piece of cake, the mangy mutts won't know what hit them. _****Indigo thought smugly as he watched the pack through the scope of his trusty blue and black sniper rifle ****Jormungandr ****from half a mile away. Taking aim at a monster, Indigo's finger slipped into the trigger guard and began applying pressure to the trigger, ****_Bang! _****The top of the Beowulf's head exploded. Indigo worked the lever action, ejecting the spent shell and loading the next one, ****_Bang! _****The second monster was hit in the throat, and the force of the bullet actually tore the creature's head off. The rest of the pack was looking around in confusion, noses raised for scents, in vain, as Indigo was purposefully downwind from the monsters. Three more shots rang out, and three more monsters dropped like ragdolls. Each shot was instantly lethal as the expert marksman chose each target with precision and deliberate speed. There was a populated town less than ten miles away and Indigo couldn't risk any monsters escaping. If even a single monster reached the town there would be casualties, so Indigo fired ****Jormungandr ****again and again, at twelve shots he ejected the spent clip and reloaded.**

**One of the smarter beasts had seen the trail from one of his shots, it barked to it's packmates, before taking a bullet in it's open mouth, blowing bits of skull and brain out the back of it's head, however the damage was done. The remaining monsters let out a bone chilling howl and charged, despite the sniper picking them off one by one. They covered ground rapidly, running on all fours, the seven foot anthropomorphic wolves could move almost as fast as a cheetah and could maintain their speed for hours. Cursing his earlier arrogance, Indigo slung ****Jormungandr ****on his back, and flipped a switch on the stock, a compartment popped open in the stock revealing a pair of curved knives inside. Indigo retrieved the blades from their housing, and flipped them into backhanded grips.**

**Electrical sparks began flickering up and down the blades and the scent of ozone filled the air, as the knife wielder charged the monsters. ****Jormungandr's ****fangs, as the knives were called, were short for combat knives, only seven inches long, with thick, heavy blades made more for slashing than stabbing, and slashing was exactly what Indigo did. A forward swipe from the left fang laid the forearm of a Beowulf wide open, and sent a stunning jolt of electricity through the monster's body. There were seven monsters and they kept leaping at Indigo, each time he would dodge to the side and leave an electrified cut somewhere on the attacking monster's body. With each slice, they got weaker, both from blood loss, and from the electricity overloading their nerves over and over.**

**The first kill happened when he managed to slash open a Beowulf's jugular, hot blood sprayed everywhere as Indigo kicked the dying monster away. Indigo threw his left fang into the shoulder of a Beowulf, then he charged and buried the right fang in the other shoulder while the monster was stunned by the electrical shock, with both blades buried in it's body they formed a circuit with the monster's heart right in the path of the electricity, smoke poured from the creature's fanged maw, and sparks lit up it's fur, before it fell over, dead. Indigo pulled his fangs out of the dissolving corpse of the Beowulf. The remaining five monsters looked at each other, and charged, Grimm rarely ran away, faced with a single human, even one that had killed thirty two of their brethren, the Beowulves would fight to their last breaths, that suited Indigo just fine, he threw his knives and made an aura enhanced leap, pulling his rifle from his back, he fired five shots in midair, and the creatures dropped like flies, when he landed he retrieved ****Jormungandr's ****fangs, and returned the knives to their home in the rifle's stock.**

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**(Author's Note: this is pretty short, but it'll do as a demo of what my main character can do, as always please, read, review and enjoy.)**

**Character Bio: Indigo Aesir**

**Sex: Male**

**Age: 17**

**Species: human**

**Height: 5'10''**

**Weight: 160lbs**

**Hair: Dark blue at the crown of his head, and lightening gradually further down until it turns light blue at the tips**

**Eyes: indigo**

**Aura: indigo**

**Semblance: Phase Vision (Indigo can see through solid objects by concentrating, no, he does not use this ability for perverted purposes, though he admittedly could, he mostly uses it with _Jormungandr's_ boost mode, explained below, or for recon.)**

**Weapon: Jormungandr, a blue and black sniper rifle with two special features, the first is the fangs, a pair of electrified seven inch combat knives stored in the stock of the rifle, the second is boost mode, activated by a switch above the trigger, boost mode utilizes a lightning Dust crystal in the rifle to augment the Dust rounds, not only making them electrified, but also enabling them to punch through two foot thick concrete, or a Deathstalker's armor plating, boost mode lasts for two minutes, after that, not only can boost mode not be activated for an hour, the fangs lose their electricity, as they themselves are not special, but are charged with energy from the Dust crystal responsible for boost mode.**


	2. Prologue 2: Noctus Lupin

**Prologue two: The Wolf**

**Noctus Lupin sniffed the air, searching for the scents of that group of racist bastards that he'd chased away from a thirteen year old rabbit Faunus girl they'd been about to rape, he was going to teach them a lesson. A very painful lesson, using Fenrir his black two bladed shotgun/battleax. Noctus' black wolf ears twitched, he'd heard the sound of a gun being cocked, he dove to the side as a gunshot rang out, he just barely managed to get out of the way, he shifted Fenrir into gun mode and returned fire with long ranged ice Dust shells, the fist sized pale blue energy slugs hit around a man with a green hunting rifle, the places that got hit were frozen. Adjusting his aim in an instant, Noctus froze the barrel of the rifle with a single shot.**

**Unfortunately, the shot also drew his attention to a patch on the man's shoulder, a broken fang done in black, the man was a Fangbreaker. The Fangbreakers were a human organization originally put together to take down the self titled Faunus civil rights terrorism group, the White Fang, who had previously been a peaceful protest group, until a regime change caused them to become violent, and make life difficult for every other Faunus because of that violence. Honestly, Noctus would have supported the Fangbreakers, if they hadn't quickly branched off from hating the White Fang, to hating ****_every _****Faunus. The Fangbreakers were responsible for numerous atrocities against innocent Faunas, and those few humans who would stand up for them, including the kidnap, torture, rape, and murder of nine year old Nyx Lupin, Noctus' sister.**

**"****Hey, you, Fangbreaker scum! How would you like to die? The easy way, or the hard way?" Noctus yelled, the seventeen year old wolf Faunus began glowing moonlight silver, his sheer rage at the sight of the Fangbreaker patch causing his aura to manifest unconsciously.**

**The human sneered. "You think that you can take me, Mutt? Well, how about now? Can you take me now?" Five other Fangbreakers stepped out from behind buildings, the rifle wielder smashed his weapon against a wall and shattered the ice surrounding it's barrel, then he leveled the gun again, Noctus shifted Fenrir to its melee form, the shotgun straightening and becoming an ax handle, the blades telescoped from the sides of the shotgun barrel, the Dust vents popped up from the backs of the blades on both sides.**

**_T_****_his one's for you Nixie_****, Noctus thought. The image of a little girl with black hair, bright, inquisitive green eyes, cute little soft furred wolf ears, and an impish grin that showed off sharp canines formed behind his eyes, then the image was replaced by the way he'd last seen her, naked, broken, battered, her wolf ears cut off, and her throat sliced wide open. Roaring with rage, Noctus charged the six armed men, they drew their weapons, the man with the rifle shifted his weapon into a spear, and blocked Noctus' first slash. The young ax fighter grinned wolfishly, and pressed a button on the haft of his weapon, powdered ice Dust spewed from the vents on the blade, the spear user barely had a chance to scream before he was frozen solid, he was already dead, but Noctus wasn't satisfied, he placed his hand on the ice statue's face, and spoke to it.**

**"****Yes, I do think I can take you, you murdering trash." Then he pushed the statue over, it shattered into dozens of shards, the other Fangbreakers looked at the shards of their comrade in shock.**

**"****You know, back when you guys just went after the White Fang, I respected you, but then, three years ago you lost sight of what you were trying to do, and began attacking every Faunus you could get your hands on, and I started to hold you in contempt."**

**The largest Fangbreaker growled in a manner that even impressed Noctus, who could actually growl like a wolf.**

**"****We realized that the only way to stop the White Fang was to wipe out the freaks they hid among, all you Faunas are threats to humanity."**

**Noctus' growl made the hair stand up on the humans' necks.**

**"****Really? My orphaned nine year old sister who'd never harmed so much as a fly in her life was such a threat to your precious Humanity that your group kidnapped, tortured, raped, and finally murdered her? I was at combat school, training to become a Huntsman to protect people from the Grimm, Human or Faunus, didn't matter to me, all I wanted to do was save lives, all Nyx ever wanted was to make people smile, and yet you took her life and ruined mine, all because we were born with wolf ears growing out of the top of our heads, so tell me ****_Humans _****which of us is the monster here? The seventeen year old boy looking for revenge, or the grown men who rape and murder a child and protect rapists, for the simple fact that the child had wolf ears, and the attempted rape victim has a rabbit tail? The answer to that question is ****_you_****. I hope you've made your peace with God, because you aren't going to be walking away from this. I don't leave survivors, I'm sure you've heard of me, though you might not recognize me without ****_this_****." From his back pocket Noctus pulled out a mask identical to the ones the White Fang had taken to wearing, except that Noctus' mask was pure black, he lifted it and placed it on his face, the small vacuums on the sides of the mask sealed it to his face to be released with the press of a button, all five Fangbreakers staggered backwards in surprise.**

**"****The Winter Wolf is a kid?" **

**"****No way, this punk is the one who's been wiping out bases singlehandedly?"**

**"****Let's take him down, Leader says that the person who brings him Winter Wolf's mask, weapon, or head will get rewarded."**

**Noctus smirked. "By all means, try." They prepared to charge, but the wolf Faunus held Fenrir out in front of him and spoke a command phrase to the ax.**

**"****Activate Ragnarok protocol: Fimbulvetr." The ax head began giving off ice Dust particles from all four vents, Fimbulvetr, the eternal winter, was active. Noctus met their charge with a sweeping slash that scattered the Dust everywhere and left frost and ice coating the area around Noctus, including on the Fangbreakers, the cold began to slow them down as the wolf Faunus charged, a slash of the ax removed the head from a red haired beanpole of a man, then he easily fended off two swords and a hatchet, the big guy, however, drew his massive sword, and it shifted into a flamethrower.**

**_Shit! _****Noctus thought, for obvious reasons he didn't like fighting fire users, they always melted his ice, and that was a bad thing when he was outnumbered like this.**

**Noctus shifted his ax to shotgun mode and activated the other special feature of his weapon. "Activate Ragnarok Protocol: Ymir." The barrel of the shotgun began glowing blue, while a small flame flickered to life in front of the barrel of the flamethrower. They triggered their weapons at the same time, blasts of ice and fire met in the air between the two fighters, the resulting explosion knocked everyone but the big Fangbreaker, and Noctus, off their feet, and into unconsciousness, Noctus fired the ice shotgun, using a short ranged shell that shot a spray of ice shards, then he shifted Fenrir back into an ax, and charged. While the large human blocked the ice shards, Fenrir's blade cleaved through his left elbow, slicing through aura, flesh, and bone without difficulty, as the man had instinctively focused his aura forward to block the ice shards, he'd left himself vulnerable to attacks from the sides, and paid for it with his arm. **

**The large Fangbreaker flared his aura, reddish-orange light poured from his body as he used his aura to compensate for the loss of his arm, however, even with his aura's strength enhancements, he only had one arm, and his sword was around six feet long and meant for two handed use. Noctus activated his Semblance and punched the man with the force of a wrecking ball, it didn't hurt him, but it did manage to decrease the man's aura, and with the strength enhancements burning through his aura, and blood loss sapping his strength, Noctus knew that it would only be a few moments before the Fangbreaker wouldn't be able to stand, much less hold his sword. Noctus shifted Fenrir to gun mode, and began filling the unconscious Fangbreakers with ice shards, the one armed man collapsed before he could even try to attack Noctus, the wolf Faunus saved him for last, as he was standing over the man, gun aimed at his head, the injured man spoke.**

**"****Your little bitch sister got what was coming to her, all you animals are going to get what you deserve: a long painful death."**

**Noctus shot him.**

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**(Author's Note: And here's the second member INGO, Noctus Lupin, the Winter Wolf.)**

**Character Bio: Noctus Lupin**

**Age: 17**

**Sex: Male**

**Species: Faunus (wolf ears on the top of his head)**

**Height: 6'**

**Weight: 180lbs**

**Hair: black**

**Eyes: green**

**Aura: moonlight silver**

**Semblance: Strength**

**Weapon: Fenrir, an ice Dust shotgun/ax mechashift weapon, with several special features, in ax form the vents on the blades can spew ice Dust, which is part of the second special feature: Ragnarok Protocol: Fimbulvetr, where all four vents are activated and keep spewing Dust until the reservoir in the handle is empty, the third and final special feature can only be activated in shotgun mode, Ragnarok Protocol: Ymir, where the Dust is leeched from three shells, then used all at once, creating an effect three times more powerful than a typical shot.**


	3. Prologue 3: Diana Grey

**Prologue 3: The Witch**

**The girl walked alone down Vale's city streets at night. She didn't look impressive, a skinny teenager with shoulder length reddish brown hair and brown eyes in a grey t-shirt and black skirt. A battered locket her only jewelry. Her only other accessories were her weapons: a pair of gloves that sported complex mechanical additions. The gloves connected to a pair of bracers containing several vials filled with Dust; a siphon which ran from each vial to a metal bulge on the back of the hand, which in turn siphoned the dust to vents and outlets on the palm and fingers of each hand. They were the only things that gave the truth of this girl. Diana Grey was a Huntress in training, a powerful Dust user whose knowledge of the substance often described as "Nature's Wrath" was unrivalled among her peers. Diana was a force to be reckoned with, and tonight, she was looking for answers.**

**Red mechanical lights were the first sign that her destination was close. The lights would all be at eye level for a grown man, and Diana knew what they meant, a high mechanical whine emanated from the gloves as the seventeen year old prepared her weapons for combat. From out of the alleys on either side of the streets twenty AK-130 security androids filed out and formed a line across the street, blocking her way, they were quickly joined by twenty more. As one, the robots raised their arms, which changed into either blades or machine guns.**

**"****Diana Grey, we have been authorized to terminate you on the orders of Oliver Laburnum. Resistance is futile."**

**Diana levelled her right glove at the speaker. Red Dust flowed down the lines and out of the vents. A ball of flame formed in her palm, growing steadily hotter and brighter until it was like a miniature sun, a pulse of flame shot the fireball at the android. The glowing missile melted straight through the machine, and took the right arm off of the android behind it. Light blue Dust replaced the red as Diana slapped her hand on the street, creating a half shell of ice around herself to act as a shield against the machine gun fire. While rounds ricocheted , and chipped the ice wall, both of Diana's gloves took on a yellow light, she pointed her palms at the sky, and a bolt of light shot upwards. Thunder rumbled in the clouds overhead, which had begun growing and darkening, until the Dust Mistress brought her hands down sharply. Spears of lightning dropped from the sky, explosions and metallic thunks sounded all around as the robots were struck by the lightning. Diana pressed her hand against the ice wall, and it dissolved in a pulse of light blue energy.**

**A majority of the androids had been destroyed, but there were still robots standing, and they were all running full tilt at the Dust Mistress. One of the androids still had a machine gun arm, and it opened fire. Diana flipped over the barrage, brown Dust flowed through her left glove and she threw a ball of energy into the ground at the machine's feet. Stone spikes exploded out of the ground and impaled the robot through the head, arms, and torso. As she landed, Diana threw a shard of ice into the core of another robot, then she dodged another one that was trying to slash her. Electricity emanated from her left glove as she grabbed the robot by the shoulder, the machine's circuits fried from the overload of energy. More brown Dust flowed through both gloves as Diana slammed her hands against the ground. The earth rippled outwards in a wave, knocking the androids off of their feet. Her hands still glowing brown, Diana raised them sharply into the air, stone spikes impaled the prone robots through the chests.**

**Diana looked at the wrecked androids, they had undoubtedly sent the alert to Laburnum, her target was long gone.**

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**(Author's Note: And here's the G in INGO, as always, Read, Review and Enjoy!)**

**Character bio: Diana Grey**

**Sex: Female**

**Age: 17**

**Species: Human**

**Height: 5'5''**

**Weight: 108lbs**

**Hair: Reddish brown**

**Eyes: Brown**

**Aura: Dark grey**

**Semblance: Astral Projection**

**Weapons: Isis and Hecate: Her twin gloves, outfitted for Dust manipulation, using them is the same as using raw Dust, except that they allow for easier access than simply using individual Dust vials **


	4. Prologue 4: Obsidian Thanos

**Prologue 4: The Destroyer**

**Obsidian Thanos walked through the Forever Fall forest. His swords: Phobos and Deimos, were sheathed across his back. Phobos' black blade and hilt matched Obsidian's hair, Deimos' blade was scarlet, it's hilt was gold colored, and they were different in every other way as well, Phobos had a foot long hilt, a wide crossguard with a trigger under it, a revolver chamber inside the crossguard, and a three and a half foot blade that could open to reveal a built in gun similar in function to a revolver loaded with thirteen nine millimeter rounds, Deimos, by contrast, was two feet long, more of a shortsword than anything else, and was heavily infused with fire Dust.**

**Obsidian was hunting for monsters to kill. His hatred of the monsters would be more than enough to attract them to him like moths to a flame. The twin swordsman found a clearing with a large rock in the center. Climbing onto the rock, Obsidian sat down to wait.**

**He didn't have to wait long, his aura's innate danger sense was the only warning he got, before he rolled out of the way of a Beowulf, tapped into the fire Dust in Deimos, and activated his Semblance in conjunction with the Dust, leaving a motionless copy of himself made of fire behind on the rock to detonate when the Beowulf hit it, the explosion cut the monster in half. Outraged howls foretold more Beowulves incoming, Obsidian drew his swords and opened Phobos' blade. The monsters that poured out of the forest were large, jet black beasts, except for their white bone masks with red markings, blood red eyes and teeth, and the shards of white bone protruding from their bodies. Obsidian fired Phobos into the pack, taking out each monster with one or two shots. Seven beasts dropped before Phobos snapped shut, and Deimos began glowing crimson.**

**Yelling a challenge to the monsters, Obsidian charged, Phobos took the left arm from a Beowulf, Deimos let loose a torrent of flames that torched three monsters and set two more to rolling on the ground in a panic, trying to extinguish their flaming fur. Deimos plunged into the one armed beast's gut, a tongue of flame spurted from it's mouth, and it fell off the blade, dead. Activating his Semblance in conjunction with the fire Dust in Deimos, Obsidian shot forward and left behind another explosive clone, which detonated when three monsters hit it in the back simultaneously, the explosion sent monster bits flying in every direction. To avoid four more monsters, he launched himself up and backwards off of another explosive clone, in midair, he shot the clone with a fireball from Deimos, detonating it and torching the Beowulves, who had learned from the previous two times that touching the flame clones was a bad idea. Launching himself off of a regular clone, Obsidian landed between two monsters and cut them both down at the same time, tossing Deimos into the air, Obsidian pulled a speedloader out and loaded the new bullets in it into Phobos, then he dropped the empty speedloader and caught Deimos as it fell. The ten remaining monsters howled and charged, Phobos' blade opened and Obsidian fired three shots, before closing the sword and charging. Launching himself over the heads of the seven monsters off of a regular clone, Obsidian opened Phobos and fired off the rest of his ammunition, killing the remaining Beowulves.**

**Obsidian closed Phobos and looked around at the dissolving corpses all around him, he wasn't satisfied, he wanted to kill more.**

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**(Author's Note: And here's the last prologue, and the last member of the team, Obsidian Thanos, the obsessive Grimm hater, who wants nothing less than the complete destruction of the Creatures of Grimm. As always, Read, Review, and most of all Enjoy, sorry about the length.)**

**Character bio: Obsidian Thanos**

**Species: Human**

**Sex: Male**

**Age: 17**

**Hair: Black, cut short**

**Eyes: Heterochromatic, left eye is orange, right eye is silver**

**Height: 6'2''**

**Weight: 190lbs**

**Semblance: Clones (Basically Blake's Shadow Semblance with a different name)**

**Aura: black threaded with orange and silver**

**Weapons: Phobos and Deimos: Phobos is a jet black hand-and-a-half sword with a revolver built in, the blade opens to reveal the gun barrel. Deimos is a scarlet bladed shortsword, with a gold hilt, the blade is heavily impregnated with fire Dust, and is capable of emitting flames in whatever manner Obsidian wants**


	5. Chapter 1

Chapter one: Orientation

(Indigo's POV)

Indigo walked onto the airship to Beacon, he wore black jeans, a dark blue t-shirt with his symbol, a blue reticle with a lightning bolt running through it, on the chest, and a black leather jacket with several metal plates sewn on over vital areas, just in case. His sniper rifle Jormungandr was slung across his back, and his varying blue hair was carelessly framing a sarcastic smirk, his default expression. The sniper began looking around the airship at the other prospective students; they gave the term "mixed bag" a new meaning. None of them shared a style in either clothing or equipment. Every single one of them was unique, and heavily armed with some fascinating weapons.

Indigo also noticed that there was a plethora of hot ladies on this airship, which was a major bonus in his opinion. The local news was running on a holoscreen, something about the White Fang disrupting a peaceful protest. Indigo saw a boy with brilliant green eyes and a pair of black wolf ears glare at the White Fang symbol on the hologram and grip the handle of the double headed battle axe strapped to his back. Indigo could see where his anger came from. Ever since the White Fang had turned violent, things had gotten worse for the Faunus population of Remnant. Fear of the White Fang spawned even more hatred towards the innocent Faunas of all four kingdoms. Creating hate groups like the Fangbreakers, and the things that group had done, made him almost ashamed of his species.

Indigo pushed thoughts of the messed up disaster that was Human/Faunus relations out of his head. He was here to become a Huntsman, not write a treatise on interspecies conflict.

"Hello, and welcome to Beacon." The news broadcasts were replaced by the hologram of a woman with pale blond hair and light green eyes in a white blouse, black business skirt, and a tattered black and purple cape.

"Who's that?" A busty blond girl asked.

Almost as if the hologram was answering her question, the woman began speaking again. "My name is Glynda Goodwitch."

Indigo almost snorted with laughter at the blond teen's "Oh" a second later.

The hologram of Glynda Goodwitch continued speaking. "You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world." The hologram vanished, and dozens of teenage Hunters in training gasped and crowded the windows to look out on the cityscape of Vale.

Indigo had no desire to ogle the bird's eye view of Remnant's second largest city. He'd been raised beyond the walls of the Kingdom of Vale, and cities didn't hold much appeal to the blue haired sniper.

When the airship landed, the initiates all poured out of the doors. One tall, lanky blond boy made straight for the trash can and began thoroughly vomiting into it. Indigo chuckled lightly at the blond boy's misfortune, though he did feel sorry for the other boy. Indigo was halfway across the courtyard when an explosion rocked the area. Indigo whirled toward the source of the blast and began slinging Jormungandr off his back until he realized that the explosion had originated with a pair of girls. One was sitting on the ground as if she'd fallen. She wore a long red hooded cloak, and a black combat dress lined in red, with black tights and red and black combat boots. She had short, uneven red and black hair, large silver eyes, and a shocked expression. The other girl, who was shouting at the sitting girl, was barely over five feet tall and was covered in soot from the little tiara style hair ornament at the base of her off center waist length ponytail, to the pointed toes of her square heeled boots. Her ice blue eyes were narrowed in anger as she stomped her foot hard enough to shake all the soot off of herself, revealing a girl who couldn't be more different than her victim if she tried, her skin was milk pale and her hair was a snow white curtain down her back. Her entire outfit, except for the red inner lining of her long-sleeved bolero jacket and a bit of black lace at her neckline, was white accented in very light blue. She was so perfectly beautiful that Indigo had to rub his eyes and pinch himself to be sure she was real. Then the girl turned her head and he saw a scar bisecting her eyebrow and eyelid before stopping just below the cheekbone. That single imperfection made her real. It turned her from an unapproachable figure of perfection into a girl- an incredibly gorgeous girl- but a living breathing teenaged girl just the same. Indigo felt his heart racing so fast he thought it might burst, he was smitten.

(Jaune's POV, fifteen minutes ago)

Jaune Arc was not having the best day of his life. Jaune may have been going to Beacon and was on the path to fulfilling his dreams, but unfortunately they had to use the bane of Jaune's existence as transportation to the school-airships. Flying made his motion sickness, which was normally kind of mild, into a living hell. Jaune had spent the entire ride to Beacon doing his level best to forcibly expel his intestines out through his mouth, or at least, that's how it felt. He felt especially bad because, as he was running for the trash can, he'd accidentally puked on some girl's shoe. However, the blond heir to the Arc legacy was unable to spare much attention to the poor girl's misfortune as his head was buried in the trash can. Jaune really _hated_ airships.

(Ruby's POV)

"Well I guess the view isn't for everyone." Ruby's big sister, Yang commented as a tall boy with messy blond hair ran past them clutching his mouth, Ruby's sister rolled her lilac eyes.

"It was a nice moment while it lasted." Ruby agreed. "I wonder who we're going to meet?"

"Ugh, I just hope they're better than Vomit Boy over there." Ruby wasn't sure she agreed with her sister's opinion, Ruby thought he was kind of cute.

Suddenly the younger girl's silver eyes widened as she spotted a couple of chunks of vomit on her blond companion's right boot.

"Oh, Yang, gross! You've got puke on your shoe!"

Yang immediately panicked and started hopping on one foot. "Gross! Gross! Gross! Gross!"

"Get away from me! Get away from me! Get away from me! Get away from me! Get away from me!" Ruby scrambled backwards, away from her sister and her puked on boot.

(Diana's POV)

Diana watched with some amusement as the girl in the red cloak and her blond haired, lilac-eyed friend panicked over the vomit that had splashed onto the blond's boot. Chuckling to herself, the Dust mistress went back to her book.

(Obsidian's POV)

Obsidian Thanos couldn't deny that he was excited to be going to Beacon, he had heard quite a bit about the Hunter school considered by some to be the best on Remnant. A vicious smile split the swordsman's face, he couldn't wait for when they'd send the students out on missions.

(Jaune's POV)

When Jaune was able to stop puking he straightened and wiped his mouth. The blonde stood at his full six foot two height, adjusted the white chestplate over his black hoodie, and the two crisscrossing belts at his waist, one holding his weapon, Crocea Mors, and it's collapsable shield/sheath, the other holding a belt pouch. Once he was situated Jaune walked out onto the courtyard and found himself captivated by the sight of Beacon, it looked like a fairytale palace, with tall towers and beautiful arches, at the top of the tallest tower a green light shone like a beacon, which was probably what had given the school it's name. _Boom!_ The sound of the explosion had Jaune diving for cover, along with several others, while several others went for weapons. At least, that's what they did until everyone realized that there was no attack, only a pair of girls, one standing, one sitting, the standing girl was covered in soot and yelling her lungs out at the other girl, Jaune recognised the victim by her short, choppy red-black hair and that long red hooded cape of hers, she had been with the blond girl he'd accidentally puked on, and she looked like she needed help. Two people approached the pair, one a boy with blue hair in varying shades and a bolt action sniper rifle strapped to his back, the other was a girl with long black hair, a black bow on top of her head, and some kind of sword strapped to her back in a bladed sheath, the hilt was a handgun with a long black ribbon hanging from the butt. Jaune decided to hang back and let them handle the situation.

(Indigo's POV)

"Whoa, whoa there Snow Angel, lay off the kid, it was clearly an accident..." Indigo began, before the angry girl whirled on him, Indigo felt a jolt of electricity run through his body as those icy eyes locked on him, if looks could kill he'd be a frozen corpse, but as terrifying as this girl's anger was Indigo couldn't help but notice that she was even more beautiful in a rage.

"This doesn't concern you, now leave, and if I ever hear you call me snow angel again I will make sure you regret it!" The white haired girl snarled, she'd drawn her rapier and had it pointed right at Indigo's heart, the blue haired sniper felt a smile forming.

"Relax, Ice Princess, I'm just a concerned passerby, you and Little Red here looked like you might need some help calming this situation down."

"I will not relax, this Dunce nearly blew us off the side of the cliff! And don't call me Ice Princess either!"

"Well until you deign to share your name with me, I'll be forced to call you _something_, My name is Indigo Aesir, and yours, Snowflake?" Indigo used a calmly respectful tone that caught the white haired girl off guard, until the nickname, which revived her scowl in an instant, though spots of color showed high on her cheeks. _Note to self_ Indigo thought _she likes being called Snowflake_.

"She's Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust corporation, the largest producer of energy propellant in the world." A girl's voice sounded behind Indigo, who turned to see a girl, with amber, somewhat catlike eyes, a white blouse and black vest, and a pair of black shorts connected to tights that started purple and darkened down her legs until turning black, a detatched black sleeve covered one arm, the other arm had a black ribbon wrapped around it. The Dust heiress lowered her sword and smiled a the newcomer.

"Finally, some recognition!" Weiss exclaimed, however the black haired girl wasn't done.

"This same company is known for it's controversial labor practices and questionable business partners." The red cloaked girl giggled a bit at the look of outrage that flooded Weiss' nearly perfect features, even Indigo had to admit that was an almost masterful smackdown. It was at this time that Indigo noticed the unusually still bow on the top of the girl's head, putting two and two together Indigo narrowed his eyes so that the bright pinpricks of blue light on the middle of his pupils were less obvious as he activated his Semblance and had a look under the girl's bow, sure enough, a pair of jet black cat ears stuck out of the top of the amber eyed girl's head. A small smile quirked the left corner of his mouth, he wouldn't tell anyone about the hidden ears, but he'd enjoy teasing her about them. It was probably time to leave, he could tell the red and black clad girl was going to be in good hands, a tall blond boy with an expression of honest concern was walking towards them.

(Ruby's POV)

Ruby was grateful to Indigo and the girl with the bow as Weiss stalked off, she tried to thank them but the black haired girl was walking off and Indigo had vanished when Ruby had taken her eyes off him, a pity, Ruby wanted to ask him about his rifle, it hadn't shown signs of having a melee form, and it was rare for Hunter trainees not to have some way to fight at melee range.

"Hey, are you ok?" The cute blond boy from the airship was standing there, offering his hand to help her from her seat on the ground.

"I'm ok, thanks." The boy smiled, he had a very nice smile. Ruby reached up and took his offered help in getting up.

"I'm Jaune." The blond boy, Jaune, looked a little uncomfortable, like she herself felt, the knowledge that she wasn't the only one nervous about meeting someone new made her feel better.

"Ruby. Aren't you the guy who threw up on the ship?" Ruby immediately gave herself a mental facepalm, why did she have to bring that up?

Jaune winced. "Yeah."

(Jaune's POV, ten minutes later)

"...All I'm saying is that motion sickness is a much more common problem than people let on." Jaune mentally cursed himself, Ruby probably though he was gross for talking about motion sickness for ten minutes, the problem was that he couldn't think about a topic to bring up.

"I'm sorry, Vomit Boy was just the first thing that came to mind." Ruby apologised.

"Well what if I called you Crater Face?" Jaune retorted jokingly.

Ruby yelped. "That explosion was an accident!"

Jaune flexed, he knew his muscles weren't impressive, but it might make her laugh at least.

"Well the name's Jaune Arc, short, sweet, the ladies love it!" Jaune gave himself a mental facepalm, great, now he was sounding like an idiot.

"Do they?" Ruby was skeptical.

"T-they will! I-I mean I hope they will, my Mom always says... Never mind." Jaune firmly shoved the lid onto that train of thought, he didn't want her thinking he was a mama's boy, he was, but it was kind of unavoidable when you were the only boy out of eight kids, and the second youngest.

Ruby giggled, which made Jaune feel better about looking like a dork in front of a pretty girl.

They walked in awkward silence for a few seconds before Ruby pulled a red rectangular object from a large clip at the small of her back, Jaune wondered what it was for a few seconds, before Ruby pressed a button and the rectangle unfolded into a freaking _scythe_ that was nearly a foot taller than she was.

"So... I got this thing." Ruby cradled the monster scythe like it was a baby, which wasn't totally emasculating at all, no sir.

"I-is that a scythe?!" Jaune was understandably a little hung up on the massive gardening implement of death being held by a sweet, tiny, fifteen year old girl, sure she dressed like a goth red riding hood, and she had been accepted into Beacon two years before everyone else, but this was crazy.

"It's also a customizable, high impact sniper rifle." Ruby informed him proudly.

Jaune was lost. "Uh, wha...?"

Ruby cocked her weapon. "It's also a gun."

Jaune was impressed, totally emasculated, but impressed nonetheless.

"Cool!" He meant it, the sniper scythe, scythle? Was seriously cool.

"So... What do you have?" Ruby asked, Jaune was embarrassed, after the sniper scythle Crocea Mors looked bland and outdated by comparison, but he drew his plain, sturdy longsword from it's sheath and presented it to Ruby.

"I've got this sword."

Ruby ooohed, Jaune wasn't sure if she was really impressed or just trying to spare his feelings, he appreciated it either way.

"I-I've got a shield too." To demonstrate Jaune took the sheath from his belt, and sure enough it expanded into a white heater shield emblazoned with the Arc crest, two concentric golden crescents.

"So, what do they do?" Ruby looked fascinated, she reached out and touched the shield, accidently triggering it.

Jaune felt heat rising in his face and neck as he juggled the contracting and expanding shield/sheath, he caught it and replaced it on his belt. "The-the shield gets smaller, so when I get tired of carrying it I can just... Put it away..." Jaune finished lamely.

Ruby just looked confused. "But... Wouldn't it weigh the same?"

Jaune's head and shoulders drooped. "Yeah, it does." The blond knight admitted dejectedly.

(Ruby's POV)

Ruby saw her companion's embarrassed face and tried to cheer him up.

"I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons, I guess I went a little overboard in designing it." Ruby giggled uncomfortably.

Jaune looked dumbfounded. "You made that?!"

Ruby was a little confused. "Of course! All students at Signal are required to forge their own weapons, didn't you make yours?"

Jaune looked uncomfortable again. "I-it's a hand-me-down, my great great grandfather used them to fight in the war."

Ruby didn't like the sadness she saw in her friend's azure eyes.

"Sounds more like a family heirloom to me. Well I like it! Not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days." She was serious, she loved all weapons, classic or modern, and Jaune's sword had a quiet elegance that Ruby admired, it was clearly well used, but it was razor sharp, a practical weapon, but at the same time it was beautiful in it's simplicity.

"Yeah, the classics." Jaune looked a little more cheerful, but he was clearly still down on himself, so Ruby decided to change the subject.

"So... Why did you help me out back at the courtyard?"

A smile returned to Jaune's face. "Eh, why not? My Mom always says, 'strangers are just friends you haven't met yet.'"

"Hmm..." Ruby mused, Jaune's mother sounded great, and Ruby had to fight down a twinge of jealousy, the way Jaune talked about his mom made Ruby wish hers was still alive.

Suddenly a thought distracted her. "Hey, where are we going?"

Jaune suddenly looked panicked. "I don't know, I was following you. Y-you think there might be a directory? Maybe a food court? Some kind of recognisable landmark? I-is that a no?" Ruby had started laughing, she couldn't help it, he was just so adorkable.

"That's a no, Jaune."

* * *

(Author's Note: Here it is, the start of Orientation Day, sorry for the long wait, writer's block, please read, enjoy, and review, seriously, not enough people actually review my fanfics, constructive criticism is welcome, no flames please.)


	6. Chapter 2

Chapter two: Introductions

(Ruby's POV)

They finally found the amphitheater after ten minutes of searching.

"Ruby! Over here, I've saved you a spot!" Yang was waving to Ruby, the excitable blond was beckoning her over, Ruby felt bad about leaving Jaune by himself, but her sister was calling her.

"Bye Jaune, I need to go, I'll see you after the ceremony!" Ruby dashed off, as she wove her way through the crowd she could hear Jaune's voice.

"Great, where am I supposed to find another nice quirky girl to talk to?!" Ruby smiled, for some reason, her friend's words gave her a warm feeling in her gut.

(Pyrrha's POV)

"Where am I supposed to find a nice quirky girl to talk to?!" The blond boy griped as the girl in the red cloak walked away. Pyrrha was tempted to go over and talk to him, he looked friendly, and was really cute, but the speech was about to start.

(Jaune's POV)

After Ruby ran off to be with her sister Jaune found a spot to watch the opening ceremony from. He stood next to the blue haired guy who'd helped Ruby out, who was making no effort to look over the heads of the other students, despite being average height. As Jaune approached the other boy he saw blue pinpricks of light in his pupils, somewhat weirded out, Jaune spoke up.

"Hey man, I just wanted to thank you for helping out Ruby, you know, before."

The varyingly blue haired sniper jumped as his concentration was shattered, the blue lights vanished, making Jaune wonder if it hadn't just been reflected light, but that wouldn't have explained the color, it had very clearly been blue, and, other than the sniper himself, and Jaune's own eyes there was nothing blue nearby to reflect.

The blue haired sniper smiled up at the blond knight.

"You mean Little Red? It's no problem, I couldn't just let the Snowflake tear into the kid like that, it just wouldn't be right. I'm Indigo Aesir, what's your name?"

"Jaune, Jaune Arc, if you don't mind me asking, what were those little dots of light in your pupils?"

"Oh, that was my Semblance."

Jaune was lost. "Semblance?"

The sniper looked dumbstruck. "How have you never heard of Semblances?"

Jaune could feel heat rising in his face and neck. "I never went to combat school, my Dad trained me." _There, not technically a lie, Dad tried to train me, then he gave it up as a lost cause._

Indigo still looked unsatisfied, but he explained. "A Semblance is the unique power that everyone has the potential to have, it comes from our auras, and it's different for everyone, mine is called Phase Vision, I can see through any solid obstruction to my sight by concentrating. In other words, I can't see in the dark or in really bright light, and I can't see invisible people unless their invisibility comes from some kind of camouflage fabric or something like that, but nothing else can block my sight."

Jaune thought this was pretty cool, but he was focusing on something else the blue haired sniper had tossed out like it was common knowledge: aura.

"Umm, Indigo, if you promise not to laugh then there's something I need your help with." Jaune had only just met this boy, but something was telling him to trust the sniper.

Said sniper was looking curious, but he promised.

"I don't know what aura is."

Indigo's mouth dropped open in pure shock."You're kidding me?!"

(Indigo's POV)

Indigo was stunned, how was this possible? Every Hunter trainee knew what aura was, it was the first thing anyone learned, the sniper was so shocked he didn't even think about making a joke about it. Once the shock wore off worry set in, Jaune was clearly a good person, a bit bumbling and unconfident, but his heart was in the right place, and Indigo didn't want the blond to die, so he took it on himself to explain aura.

"Aura is the personal expression of your soul. Every human, faunus, and animal has one. In most people they are locked and only a life threatening situation can unlock someone's aura without training, or having someone else purposefully unlock it. In most cases the absolute first step of Hunter training is to unlock the student's aura, this is because your aura can shield you from harm, heal your wounds, and even enhance your body and senses, you can tell if people are watching you, you can see and hear better, and sometimes even your sense of smell is increased. And of course you need an activated aura to use your Semblance, or even find out what it is, I'm completely mystified as to why yours wasn't."

The blond knight nodded. "So it's like a force field, with healing and physical enhancements."

Indigo felt a smile tugging at his mouth as he nodded, Jaune was clearly smarter than he looked. "Exactly, and I can activate your aura for you after the ceremony, Ozpin's getting on stage."

Jaune nodded.

(Ruby's POV, several minutes ago)

"How's your day been Little Sister?" Yang asked.

"You mean after you ditched me and I exploded?!"

Yang winced at the sharp tone in her sister's voice. "Yikes, meltdown already?"

Ruby nearly growled at her sister, but restrained herself. "No, I literally exploded a _hole _in front of the school, there was some fire, a-and I think some ice?"

"Are you being sarcastic?" Yang asked playfully. _What part of that sounded sarcastic?_ The annoyed red reaper thought.

Ruby felt her voice get steadily higher and more upset as she launched into an explanation of her day. "Ugh, I wish! First I tripped over some crabby girl's luggage, and then she was yelling at me, at then I sneezed, and then I _exploded_, and I felt really _really_ bad, and I just wanted her to stop yelling at me!"

"You!" Weiss Schnee's angry shout startled Ruby into her sister's arms.

The panicking girl yelped. "Oh God it's happening again!"

"You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff!" Weiss snarled.

Yang looked at the red clad girl in her arms askance. "Oh my God, you really exploded." The blond brawler seemed awed.

"It was an accident! It was an accident!" Ruby insisted.

Weiss whipped out a pamphlet entitled "Dust for Dummies and other Inadequate Individuals."

Ruby looked at the piece of paper in confusion. "What's this?"

Weiss delivered a rapid fire speech about the Schnee Dust Company's lack of liability in the event of misused product.

The speed her schpiel left Ruby confused. "Uh, What?"

"Do you really want to make this up to me?" Weiss demanded.

Ruby was still confused. "A-absolutely?"

"Read this, and never speak to me again." Weiss snapped coldly.

Yang tried to be the voice of reason in the conversation. "Look, it sounds like the two of you just got off on the wrong foot, why don't you start over, and try to be friends?"

Ruby grabbed this lifeline like a drowning woman. "Yeah, great idea Sis!"

Ruby turned to the icy heiress and held out her hand with a wide, honest smile. "Hello Weiss, I'm Ruby, wanna hang out? We could go shopping for school supplies!"

"Yeah!" Weiss responded with biting sarcasm. "And we can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys like tall, blonde, and scraggly, or blue, sarcastic and fearless." Both Jaune and Indigo looked over when Weiss mentioned them.

Unfortunately, the sarcasm completely flew over Ruby's head and she squealed in excitement. "WOW, REALLY!?"

Weiss looked at the red clad girl like she was a couple evolutionary steps up from pond scum. "No." Was her flat response.

The budding return of the argument was cut off at the knees with the sound of a man clearing his throat into a microphone.

(Diana's POV)

Diana Grey stood near the back of the crowd as Ozpin's speech began, she wasn't paying attention to it, it didn't matter to her, all she cared about was finding her quarry again.

(Noctus' POV)

"I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." With that the Headmaster turned and limped off on his cane. Noctus found himself nodding in agreement with the elderly Huntsman's words, knowledge is meaningless unless acted upon.

(Indigo's POV)

_Blue, sarcastic and fearless? Seriously Weiss? That was the best you could come up with? Oh well, at least she thinks I'm cute._ Indigo had heard the exchange between Weiss, Ruby and the blond girl and was mentally rolling his eyes.

The blue haired sniper looked over at Jaune, he was looking thoughtful.

"Hey Jaune, you know she was being sarcastic, right? Weiss finds me incredibly annoying and actually held me at swordpoint during our only conversation, and I'm fairly certain that she'd think you were even more annoying." Indigo pointed out.

Jaune nodded. "I know, I'm not really interested in her anyway." A slow grin formed as he continued. "But that doesn't mean I can't exact a little petty vengeance."

Indigo returned the smile. "I might join you in that."

(Jaune's POV)

Jaune kept a cocky smile on his face, inside however his mind was racing. _What are you doing you blonde moron? Why are you _trying _to piss of an easily angered heiress, and look like an idiot again in front of Ruby and her sister all at the same time?_

Jaune walked over to the girls and with a cheesy wink at Weiss he said "I'm a natural blonde, you know." Weiss facepalmed, and Jaune felt a sense of accomplishment, it was small vengeance, but it still felt good.

"Really Jauney-boy? _That's_ your big opener? It's a wonder you don't have women throwing themselves at you wherever you go." Indigo said from behind the blonde knight, Ruby's sister stifled a snort.

(Indigo's POV)

Indigo looked at Weiss, Jaune's comment had, predictably, annoyed the icy heiress, the blue haired sniper decided to capitalize on this.

"How's life treatin' ya Snowflake? Met any cute, blue, sarcastic and fearless guys lately?" Weiss' left eye started twitching.

"For your information, no I didn't, I met one infuriatingly cocky blue haired sniper, and if you ever call me Snowflake again I'll freeze you into a block of ice and leave you somewhere for the Grimm to use as a frozen treat." The white haired girl threatened.

Indigo let out a small laugh. "You're cute when you get mad, did you know that?"

Weiss' mouth gaped in shock, and probably no small amount of indignation, then, her ears slightly pink, Weiss stalked off.

Once she was gone the blonde girl with Ruby burst out laughing.

"Oh, Monty! Did you see her face? Priceless!" The blonde girl grinned over at Indigo.

"I think I might like you, Blue. Name's Yang, Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's big Sis."

Indigo felt an answering grin formed on his own face as he replied. "Indigo Aesir, nice to meet you, Yang, and you too Little Red."

Ruby started, then turned a little red from embarrassment at her unintentional rudeness.

"I-I'm Ruby Rose, it's nice to meet you Indigo, and thanks for helping me with Weiss the first time, a-and, um... couldIseeyourweapon?"

Indigo just looked at her as he tried to untangle her words, thankfully, Yang translated for him.

"Ruby wants to see your weapon, she's a huge weapon nerd and she likes to see the weapons of anyone she meets." Yang said this with a kind of fond yet rehearsed quality that told Indigo this was hardly the first time she had had to translate similar requests.

Reaching behind him, Indigo unslung Jormungandr from his back and presented the blue and black sniper rifle over to Ruby, who took the gun with an excited expression, and practiced hands. Indigo watched the young girl examine his rifle with all the precise thoroughness of a professional. First Ruby put the rifle in a firing position, the stock snug against her left shoulder, as she tested the weight and checked the sight, then she worked the lever action and ejected a round into her waiting hand, Indigo used .45 calibre armor piercing rounds. Ruby then ejected the clip, replaced the round she'd ejected and counted how many the clip fit, twelve.

"This is a beautiful gun, but there are three switches here that I don't have any idea what they do, could you show me?" Ruby asked as she looked up from her examination of Jormungandr.

"Sure" Indigo took his weapon back from the black and red clad weapon enthusiast. Indigo flipped the switch located next to a small hatch slightly below the center of the rifle, the hatch popped open to reveal a lightning Dust crystal hooked up to several energy siphons.

"The second switch, near the trigger activates the crystal and puts Jormungandr into boost mode, essentially turning it into an electrified AM rifle." Indigo explained, indicating the relevant switch, understandably, he didn't flip it.

"And the last one, what about that?" Ruby prompted.

Indigo grinned. "I'm sure you've noticed this weapon's lack of melee options, well thats where this last switch comes into play." Indigo flipped the switch on Jormungandr's stock, the stock opened up to reveal two short, heavy, single bladed close combat knives.

"I call these Jormungandr's fangs, they're electrified by the Dust crystal responsible for boost mode, they may be small, but when I need to fight at melee range they do the trick nicely." Ruby's silver eyes widened as she let out a fascinated 'oooh', only for Yang to reach over and pulled her hood down over her face, Ruby struggled against her sister's grip, but failed to pull free until the older girl released her hold on the hood a few seconds later.

"What the heck, Yang! What was that for?!" Ruby yelped.

The blonde girl looked her sister in the eyes. "You were about to go completely fangirl over Indigo's gun, and you are way too young to be that excited by some guy's weapon."

Ruby, and everyone else, except Yang of course, turned bright red.

"YANG! Why did you have to word it like that?!" Ruby groaned.

Yang cackled. "'Cause it's just so fun to mess with my baby sister, besides, it's one of my older sibling duties to embarrass my younger sibling at every opportunity."

Indigo smiled, these guys were going to be a lot of fun to be around.

* * *

(Author's Note: Here's the next exciting installment in INdiGO Dreams, next up, Jaune getting his aura unlocked, and initiation. As always please Read, Review, and most importantly, Enjoy.)


	7. Chapter 3

Chapter three: Aura and the Emerald Forest

(Jaune's POV)

Jaune walked out of the guys' shower in his PJs and went to find Indigo. The blue haired sniper was sitting on a bench in Beacon's front courtyard, he was wearing a pair of dark blue sweatpants and a white undershirt. When he looked up at Jaune his eyes widened and he began to shake with barely suppressed laughter. Jaune was confused, what was so funny about his appearance?

"Indigo? What's so funny?" Jaune asked.

Indigo managed to gasp a response around hysterical laughter. "Hahahahahaha, b-b-b-bunny slippers and-and, heeheeheehee, footy PJs! Hahahahaha!" Jaune was starting to feel somewhat insulted, he liked his PJs and bunny slippers, they were comfy, and they'd been gifts from his youngest sister who would be devastated if he didn't wear them.

"They were gifts from my little sister, and besides, they're comfortable."

Indigo managed to calm himself down. "Sorry, I shouldn't laugh if it was a gift from your sister, but you look more than a little ridiculous."

Jaune cleared his throat, and Indigo instantly became businesslike. "Right, that's beside the point, we're here so I can unlock your aura, so let's get to it. Just close your eyes and relax."

(Indigo's POV)

"Ok" Jaune closed his eyes and took a deep breath, once he let the breath flow out of him it took his tension with it. That was good, Indigo judged, it would make this process much easier. Indigo stepped up in front of Jaune, the unlocking of a person's aura was a difficult and delicate task, if Jaune resisted then the backlash would likely injure both of them badly enough that they would be unable to participate in initiation, which would mean they both failed. _Doubting yourself isn't going to help you do this, and if you don't then he'll most likely die tomorrow, just do it._

Indigo put one hand next to Jaune's left ear, and one over his baby blue footie clad chest, he began to say the invocation.

"_For it is in passing that we achieve immortality..."_ Through his connection to Jaune, which stemmed from his left hand on the blond knight's chest, over his heart, Indigo carefully drew a small portion of Jaune's aura from his body, it felt like drawing a red hot wire along the skin of his arm.

"_...Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death..."_ Indigo ran the scrap of locked aura through his core, which he felt as a sphere of cool indigo energy, the burning colorless aura struggled against Indigo's mind as he pulled it out of the core of his soul like a needle through a pair of ripped jeans, but Indigo tugged and pulled until it started coming out the other side, it came out a glowing white thread that gave off a comforting warmth. Indigo was dimly aware of his physical body glowing a dark blue, indigo, naturally.

"_...I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee."_ The most dangerous stage for Indigo was completed, but what happened next would be the worst for Jaune. The blue haired sniper drew the sliver of activated aura through his right arm, then he pushed the thread of white into the passive colorlessness of the inactive aura, he kept pushing until he reached Jaune's core and mentally shoved the thread of white into the grey sphere, Indigo's thoughts were forcibly ejected from Jaune's soul as the inactive blankness was all sucked into the blond knight's core, where the thread of white spread until all the colorlessness was converted to a blinding white light that spilled from Jaune's body as it all exploded outward from his core. His soul was _huge_, Indigo's aura was a good size, slightly above Hunter average, and he'd gone through extensive training to get it to it's current size, but Jaune naturally had nearly three times as much aura as Indigo did.

Suddenly feeling the huge energy expenditure of the unlocking process on the unlocker, Indigo's legs gave out and he collapsed to the cobblestones of the courtyard.

Jaune's earnest face wrinkled in concern. "Indigo? Are you alright?"

The tired sniper waved away the concern, even though his vision was currently swimming and his head felt like it was filled with cotton balls. "I'm fine, that just took a lot out of me, nothing that a good night's sleep can't cure, _that_, my good Sir Arc is the biggest natural aura I've ever seen, seriously, what did your parents feed you as a kid? Ursa cubs?"

Jaune gave an embarrassed laugh, but didn't answer.

(Jaune's POV)

_What do you say to the person who literally just woke up your soul? Thank you seems like too little, but I have no clue what I should say._ Jaune's entire body was buzzing with energy, it felt like Indigo had injected him with a syringe of pure caffeine, there was no way he was going to be able to sleep tonight. The silence stretched into uncomfortable length.

Finally Jaune couldn't take it any more. "Ummm... Thanks for that, at least now I have a small chance of surviving tomorrow."

Indigo looked up at the blond with clearly exhausted eyes.

"Well, now that my daily good deed is done, I'm going to go to bed, unlocking an aura really takes it out of a guy."

Jaune bade him goodnight as he slouched off, Indigo just waved tiredly in his direction.

"See you at Initiation, Blondie, try not to die." The exhausted sniper yawned out.

With those cheerful parting words Indigo headed back inside. Jaune stayed up for several more hours, the energy high from his freshly activated aura made sleep impossible until it ran out around midnight and Jaune returned to the ballroom, where the Initiates were sleeping, and got into his sleeping bag.

(Ruby's POV, 6:30 AM)

_Ugh... Whoever invented early morning wake up times deserves an introduction to Crescent Rose._ Ruby groaned, the daylight stabbed her sleepily light sensitive eyes as the groggy red reaper removed her sleeping mask. Bearlike growls and deep breathing to her left told Ruby what she would see before the fifteen year old had even turned her head. Yang lay sprawled on the floor of the ballroom. Somehow Yang had turned around in her sleep so that the only things sticking out of the sleeping bag were her legs, clad in black shorts, her exposed midriff, the edge of her orange sleeping shirt had gotten pushed up as she'd thrashed around, and several inches of waist length golden hair.

Ruby reached out to her sister's toned midsection and tickled her mercilessly. Yang came awake with explosive force, literally, the sleeping bag shredded and caught fire as golden flames enveloped her hair and the angry, helplessly laughing brawler tore her way out of the sleeping bag.

"RUBY! I'm going to KILL YOU!" Yang roared, her eyes had shifted from lilac to blood red.

The other initiates woke to the commotion in time to see a little girl in a black tanktop and white pajama pants with pink hearts on them, with choppy reddish black hair being chased by a curvy blond with red eyes and golden flaming hair who was shouting obscenities at the top of her lungs.

(Jaune's POV)

Yang's roars woke Jaune out of the deepest sleep he'd ever experienced. He opened his eyes to see Ruby leaping over sleepy forms as she ran for her life with her big sister hot on her trail, in every sense of the phrase if the flames in her hair were any indication. Shrugging at the strangeness of the female mind, Jaune stood, stretched, and went about rolling up his sleeping bag.

By the time Jaune had showered, dressed, and headed to the dining hall, Yang had calmed down, though not before embedding her little sister in a wall. Before yesterday Jaune would have been completely mystified about how that could happen to someone, and still have that same person be darting around like a coffee hyped puppy only a minute after being extracted, but now Jaune knew it had been Ruby's aura that had protected her from harm.

As he was leaving for the lockers an orange haired girl zipped up to Jaune. Her wide grin and teal eyes were bright, inquisitive, and possibly a little insane, or just really _really_ hyper.

"Hellooo!" The strange girl sang out, she waited for Jaune to respond with a quick "hi" before she launched into speech. "My name's Nora! Nora Valkyrie! What's yours Stranger?"

"Uh, Jaune Arc?"

"Nice to meet you Jaune-Jaune!" Nora exclaimed, before reaching behind her and dragging out a tall skinny boy with elbow length black hair in a ponytail and with a single stripe in his bangs that matched his magenta eyes, the young man had a green tailcoat on in an eastern style and white martial arts pants.

"This is Renny!" Nora exclaimed. The green clad boy stuck his hand out to Jaune and spoke in a far more sedate manner than his friend, whom he spared an eye roll and an indulgent half smile.

"Lie Ren, a pleasure to meet you Jaune, you can just call me Ren if you want."

Jaune smiled, despite their drastically different personalities it was clear that they shared a deep bond.

"The pleasure is mine Ren, I'm just glad I've met some more good people here, I'm really looking forward to initiation, how about you guys?"

Nora nodded vigorously. "Yeah! I can't wait to be smashing monsters with Renny and Magnhilde!"

Jaune looked questioningly at Ren who understood and answered at once, "Magnhilde is Nora's weapon, a grenade launcher warhammer."

_What was it with the women in this school using ridiculously awesome and crazy weapons?_ Jaune mused, out loud he said: "Wow, that sounds really cool! So, what's your weapon, Ren?"

The calm fighter gave another of his half smiles. "I use a pair of bladed automatic pistols I call Stormflower."

Jaune nodded, he liked Ren's style. Stormflower sounded like a nice and reasonable weapon choice, and he had no doubt that they would be totally deadly in the hands of the stoic green gunner. Jaune wondered if Ren would be willing to teach him how to use a gun, he was decidedly lacking in the range department after all, either Ren or Indigo.

"Cool, all I've got is my great great Granddad's sword Crocea Mors, and a sheath that turns into a shield." Jaune admitted to his new friends.

"So, have you two given any thought to who'll be on your team?" Jaune asked.

Nora answered his question with her apparently customary enthusiasm. "Yup! Me and Renny are going to be the best Team ever!"

Ren looked over at his friend with a patient half smile. "I believe Jaune was asking about what we would look for in the other two members, the Teams at Beacon are made of four people Nora."

"Oh! That's easy, our other teammates would be awesome fun people! Like you Jaune-Jaune!"

Jaune felt flattered that Nora thought he would make a good teammate.

"Well, let's go get our stuff, see you two at initiation, I guess."

Ren nodded, and Nora bounced up and down.

"Bye Jaune-Jaune! Me and Ren'll see you soon." The hyper hammer maiden then grabbed her green clad friend and dashed off, in the wrong direction. They were halfway down the hall before Jaune heard Ren say something quietly, and Nora reversed her course, rapidly dashing past Jaune with an ecstatic laugh.

(Indigo's POV)

The blue haired sniper opened his locker and retrieved Jormungandr. After giving the rifle a cursory examination Indigo slung the gun across his back by its strap and checked the placement, adjusting it to enable a fast draw. After that Indigo opened the stock on his sniper rifle and checked the knives stored within, both of the short, thick, curved blades were nestled securely in their housing, a small spark of indigo electricity ran down the length of one of the knives and Indigo smiled in satisfaction before closing the hatch and shutting away Jormungandr's fangs.

(Ruby's POV)

Ruby's mind was buzzing as she and Yang entered the equipment storage area and began searching for their lockers, they located both very quickly, they'd stashed their weapons in adjacent lockers.

An unusual pair walked past the sisters, an orange haired girl who was chattering nonstop about her sloth imitation, and a black haired boy with a pink stripe in his bangs who just walked sedately beside her. Ruby noticed Yang's gaze tracking the boy, or more specifically, fixed on his butt, the red and black clad girl rolled her eyes at her sister, who flashed a conspiratorial grin, Ruby couldn't help but smile back.

"So, you seem extra chipper today." Yang observed.

Ruby's smile widened as she pulled her precious sniper scythe from her locker. "Yup! No more awkward small talk or getting-to-know-you-stuff, today I get to let my sweetheart do the talking!" Ruby hugged the collapsed weapon and stroked it lovingly.

Yang looked uncomfortable. "You know you won't be the only one going through initiation today, if you want to grow up you're going to have to meet new people and learn to work together."

Ruby made a disgusted noise. "_Ugh!_ You sound like _Dad_! First of all what does meeting people have to do with fighting? And secondly I don't need people to help me grow up, I drink milk!" A snort behind her had her looking over at a boy with two different colored eyes and two mismatched swords strapped to his back, Ruby glared at him until he walked away.

Yang was quick to point out the flaw in Ruby's thinking. "But what about when we form teams?"

Ruby suddenly felt very nervous, she'd forgotten about teams. "I-I'll just be on your team, I guess."

Yang pulled her long blonde mane over her shoulder and started to stroke it, a nervous habit of hers. "Well, maybe you should try being on someone elses team."

Oh... She did NOT just say that! Silver eyes narrowed into a glare that could peel paint. "My dearest sister Yang... are you implying that YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE ON THE SAME TEAM AS ME!?"

Under her sister's wrath Yang backed up swiftly. "W-what? N-no, of course I do! I just thought... maybe it would help you... break out of your shell."

"What the-?! I don't need to break out of my shell, that's absolutely ridiculous!" Ruby shouted.

(Indigo's POV)

Indigo leaned against his locker, killing time before initiation by sharpening his knives, when a noise caused him to look over at two girls, one was Weiss who was sporting an absolutely evil expression which she'd hidden from her conversation partner, a tall redhead in a stiff leather top, extensive leg armor and red miniskirt, by turning away. Suddenly Jaune put himself between the girls, his back was to the redhead who looked startled. This was shaping up to be a good show, so Indigo started toward the trio.

He came into the conversation just as Weiss asked Jaune a question. "...Do you have any idea who this is?"

Jaune just smiled at Weiss. "Not in the slightest Snow Angel." Indigo grinned at the shade of red Weiss' face turned.

"This is Pyrrha." Pyrrha interrupted Weiss' introduction of her with a bright smile and a friendly. "Hello again."

"Pyrrha graduated top of her class at Sanctum."

Jaune looked clueless, which Indigo suspected was not an unfamiliar expression for the knight, Jaune seemed like a really nice guy and he was smarter than he looked, but he didn't seem to have much experience in the real world.

Weiss continued to introduce the other girl. "She won the Mistral Regionals four years in a row, a new record." This time both Indigo and Jaune answered answered in unison.

"The what?" Weiss rolled her eyes as she saw the blue haired sniper.

"I should have known you'd show up Aesir, you always seem to be around when you are least wanted."

Indigo flashed a cocky grin "What can I say, it's part of my charm, Ice Swan."

Weiss gave him a deadpan look.

Indigo fidgeted. "What? I'm running low on nicknames that you haven't threatened me with an icy and painful death if I repeat them."

"You could just, oh I don't know, use my _name!_" The white haired heiress retorted with frosty dignity.

"But that would take the fun out of seeing your reactions to each new nickname, Snow Goddess."

"Are your nicknames going to get steadily more ridiculous?"

Indigo grinned. "Probably, but it's not as if you don't do them justice, the good and the bad."

Weiss was, for what may have been the first time in years, speechless. Indigo let out a laugh and, with one last quick, cocky smile at Weiss, and a wave to Jaune, Indigo walked away from the group.

"See you around Jaune, Pyrrha, Ice Queen. It was nice meeting you Pyrrha."

Weiss' sputters of indignation brought a smile to his face as he walked out of the locker rooms.

"_First years are to report to Beacon Cliff for initiation."_ Professor Goodwitch's voice sounded from the PA system.

(Diana's POV, Beacon Cliff)

Diana Grey stood on one of the metal plates the initiates had been instructed to stand on, a slight breeze blew her open zip up hoodie back a bit, the breeze was a little chilly so she zipped up, she took the time to check over her weapons, her Dust channeling gloves were in good condition, the vents all responded to her aura and the vials of Dust attached to each glove were full.

Professor Ozpin began his initiation speech.

"For years you have trained to become warriors, and today your abilities will be tested in the Emerald Forest."

Goodwitch stepped in. "I'm sure all of you have heard rumors about the assignment of Teams, let us put an end to your confusion, each of you will be given teammates, today." A girl groaned near the end of the line, and Diana couldn't help agreeing with her, she had no desire to be stuck with three other people for four years.

Ozpin again. "These teammates will be with you for the remainder of your years here so it is within your best interests to be partnered with someone with whom you can work well." The same girl from before whimpered and Diana felt a brief flash of sympathy for the obviously terrified girl.

Ozpin's bad news train hadn't quite slowed to a stop yet, the silver haired Headmaster had one more bomb to drop on the initiates. "That being said." He continued, "the first person you make eye contact with upon landing will be your partner for the next four years."

"WHAT?!" The girl yelped, and once again Diana found herself agreeing wholeheartedly, eye contact was probably the stupidest way for deciding partnerships Diana had ever heard of.

"Once you have partnered up make your way to the northern end of the forest, you will meet with opposition along the way, do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you _will_ die." A boy gulped loudly then gave a nervous laugh. Ozpin ignored him. "You will be monitored and graded through the duration of Initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics, each pair will choose one and make their way back to the cliffs, where we will guard your relic, and your standing, and grade you appropriately, any questions?"

A boy raised his hand and tried to speak. "Uh, yeah, uh Sir?"

Ozpin pretended not to hear the boy. "Good! Take your positions." Every student fell into their own ready stance, except the tall blonde boy at the very end of the line who was still trying to get Ozpin's attention as students were launched one by one high into the air over the Emerald Forest. Diana was the fifth in line, so it didn't take long before the Dust witch heard a click under her feet, and suddenly found herself rocketing out over the trees.

* * *

(Author's note: Here we go, chapter two, please read, review and enjoy."


	8. Chapter 4

Chapter four: Initiation

(Indigo's POV)

The blue haired sniper hurtled through the air and thought furiously, how was he going to avoid being flattened on the forest floor, he had no aspirations to become a human pancake. The blue haired sniper unslung Jormungandr off his back, and flipped the boost mode switch, a high whine and a blue glow emanated from the rifle. Indigo aimed and fired in less than a second, a blue streak of crackling light punched through the base of a tree, then he fired three more boosted shots, the recoil from each shot slowed his fall further, until the tree fell past him and he angled his fall to land on it and run down it's length as it was crashing to the forest floor. When the tree landed Indigo jumped off into a roll to the forest floor, the glow died inside the rifle, boost mode had timed out.

Indigo left the smoldering craters his four boosted shots had created behind as he headed further into the forest.

(Obsidian's POV)

Obsidian stalked through the forest, feral excitement thrummed through his body. Now that he was finally in the Emerald Forest, actively hunting the creatures of Grimm, Obsidian's hatred and bloodlust burned in his gut as his gaze scoured the forest. He didn't care about finding a partner, whoever he ended up with would just have to learn to keep out of his way.

(Diana's POV)

The three Ursai burst out of the forest right at Diana, who sidestepped the first bear demon and shot several shards of stone into the second creature's face with Isis, causing it to reel back in pain, at the same time she hammered the third away from her with a blast of wind from Hecate. The hit only sent the Ursa back a few steps, but it was enough to delay all three monsters as she slammed both hands into the ground, and three thin columns of flame engulfed each monsters' head. They each fell to the ground and began to vaporize into black smoke.

The Dust witch activated her Semblance and separated her mind from her body, then, glowing slightly gray the transparent image of the girl flew a quick circuit around the clearing and the surrounding woods, checking for more monsters, or other students. Once Diana was satisfied that the coast was, for now, clear, she returned to her body and continued on her way. Diana didn't run, she walked calmly through the forest, weapons at the ready.

After ten minutes of walking a rustling sound came from the foliage to Diana's left, her head snapped toward the noise to meet a pair of bicolored eyes, one was orange, the other was silver, a second later the rest of the boy walked out of the shadows, he held a pair of swords and his body language was feral, eager. Diana felt a chill as she watched her new partner stalk toward her, he seemed to recover his humanity as he approached, his back straightened, his feral smile became an impatient frown, and the stalk changed into a brisk walk.

The boy spoke first. "My name is Obsidian, there's only one thing you need to know about me: Don't get in my way."

"Diana, and you don't have to worry about me getting in your way, I'm a Dust user, I work best from the back of a fight, it's you who should be careful not to get in my way, it would be a hassle to find a new partner because you jumped in front of a fireball." Obsidian assessed her critically, then nodded. The pair walked on in silence.

(Indigo's POV)

Indigo heard the sounds of combat nearby, activating his Semblance, the blue haired sniper looked through the trees in the direction of the noise. The black haired wolf Faunus from the airship was fighting a dozen Beowulves at once, four were slowly dissolving with ice shards embedded in their bodies, or missing body parts, and a fifth was frozen solid. A smile was forming on Indigo's lips, he ran toward the fight, he slung his rifle off his back and aimed, when the first Beowulf came into his unenhanced view Indigo shot it in the head.

"BAM! One down, eleven to go!" Indigo yelled as he squeezed off another shot, felling a second monster.

"Ten!" Indigo's entrance caused everything, monster and Faunus, to freeze in shock, Indigo used the opportunity to shoot two more monsters, one in the throat, the other in the back of it's head. The green eyed Faunus was the first to recover, his swung his ax into the skull of the nearest monster to him. Three Beowulves broke from the pack and charged at Indigo, who pulled out Jormungandr's fangs and grinned with anticipation, the knives were still drained of their electrical charges, but they were deadly sharp, the knife wielding sniper ducked under a claw swipe and slashed the achilles tendon on the Beowulf's left leg.

"Too slow, fuzzball." Without slowing down Indigo stepped inside the second Beowulf's reach and pressed the blade of one of his knives against it's throat.

The Beowulf froze, it was smart enough to know that it was in mortal peril. The monster growled down at the human who had it dead to rights. Indigo shuddered. "Two words Ugly: breath mints." Then he ripped the blade of his knife across the demon's throat. The third monster charged him as it's packmate's corpse fell to the ground, Indigo backed up, ducking and dodging around claw strikes, then he reversed course, he kicked the Beowulf's right ankle, then he slashed it several times, leaving painful and bloody cuts all over the creature's body, driving it back and cutting it over and over until it simply collapsed from blood loss. Unfortunately this left the knife fighter open to the half lamed Beowulf's charge, the impact knocked one of Indigo's knives out of his hand, but his aura took the brunt of the attack, and he was able to ram his last knife through the back of the Beowulf's neck.

"Seriously?" Indigo asked the dissolving corpse. "You seriously thought it was a good idea to get that close to a guy with a knife? I may have just done the Beowulf gene pool a favor."

Indigo retrieved his lost knife, then put both blades in their spots in Jormungndr's stock. The sniper looked up to see the ax wielder shift his weapon into a shotgun and blast the last Beowulf with ice shards. The wolf eared boy turned and their eyes met. Indigo grinned at the other boy and introduced himself. "Looks like we're partners, I'm Indigo Aesir, what's your name Partner?"

The green eyed Faunus scowled. "Noctus Lupin. Let's get going." And just like that Noctus turned and walked away.

(Ruby's POV)

This had to be some kind of cosmic joke, Ruby had wanted to be partners with her sister, or maybe Indigo, Jaune, or even Blake, the black haired girl who'd saved Ruby from Weiss yesterday, she could have had a great time with any of them, instead she'd almost literally ran into Weiss within a few minutes of landing, and they had been at each other's throats almost constantly since then.

The duo had just finished running from a pack of Beowulves, and she _may_ have accidently caused Weiss to start a forest fire.

"What was that?" Ruby demanded. "That should have been easy!"

"Well, if you had used even the slightest amount of caution in the placement of your strikes, I wouldn't have set the forest on _fire_!" Weiss snapped.

Ruby was at the limits of her patience. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm just wondering how someone who talks so much would communicate so little during an encounter!"

"Well I'm sorry you needed my help in a fight, I'm just fine on my own!" Ruby growled.

"Congratulations on being the strongest child to sneak her way into Beacon!" Weiss snarled.

Ruby's anger flared as Weiss stalked off, with a frustrated cry the red hooded girl drew Crescent Rose in it's scythe form and swung hard at a nearby tree, the incredibly sharp blade slashed through the trunk of the tree, Ruby dashed off after her partner as the tree fell to the ground and as such was totally unaware of the feather that fell to the ground, a jet black feather as long as the felled tree trunk.

(Jaune's POV)

Jaune was embarrassed, he'd flailed around helplessly when everyone had been launched into the air, then he'd been pinned to a tree by Pyrrha's spear, then he'd hung there like an idiot as Ruby and Weiss had stumbled onto him, he thought Ruby might have helped him down but Weiss dragged her off. After they'd vanished into the forest he'd hung there until Pyrrha had arrived to retrieve her spear, and him.

Pyrrha and Jaune walked through the forest together, well, Pyrrha walked, Jaune stumbled, tripped over tree roots, and once got horribly tangled up in a bush. More than once he'd found himself wondering exactly how it was physically possible for Pyrrha to walk on the uneven forest floor in her high heeled boots without losing her footing once, and even manage to be graceful and coordinated as she did it, while he, in sensible sneakers and jeans, tripped and stumbled on every other step, it wasn't fair, but Pyrrha was such a nice person that he scolded himself for the short burst of jealousy.

Gunshots sounded in the distance. "What was that?" Jaune asked nervously.

Pyrrha listened for a second before answering, her voice came out sounding clipped and professional. "Gunfire. It seems some of our comrades have encountered the enemy." Apparently distracted by the thought of the other initiates fighting monsters nearby Pyrrha ducked under a branch and pushed it out of her way with her round shield, as soon as she cleared the branch the red haired warrior maiden let go of the branch, which snapped back and whacked Jaune in the face hard enough to knock him off his feet. The blond knight sat down, dazed from the hit and felt a small cut on his cheekbone close almost immediately.

Pyrrha turned to her partner with an expression of sincere contrition. "Oh! Sorry!"

Jaune smiled up at her sheepishly indicating the already healed scratch. "It's fine, just a scratch, my aura healed it already, see?" Pyrrha looked relieved as she reached down to help him up.

"As long as you're ok then we should keep going, ok Jaune?"

"Ok."

(Pyrrha's POV, several minutes later)

They stood in front of a cave.

"Do you think this might be it?" Jaune asked.

Pyrrha didn't think it was likely, but since she couldn't be sure she just gave a noncommittal "maybe."

Jaune grinned, then he set about making a torch. When he finished they lit the torch with a small lighter Jaune kept in one of his belt pouches and made their way into the dark cave. They'd been walking for five minutes and Pyrrha's initial uncertainty about the cave was settling into a full fledged unease.

"Jaune, I don't think this is it..." Pyrrha warned her partner.

Her partner however was having none of it. "Pyrrha, I made the torch, could you just humor me for five more feet?" At that exact moment Jaune tripped and with a hiss of steam the torch landed in a small puddle and was immediately snuffed out, plunging both Hunter trainees into complete darkness. All of a sudden Pyrrha felt something strange about their surroundings.

"Hey, Jaune, do you feel that?"

Jaune groaned as he asked. "Soul crushing regret?" Under normal circumstances she would have found his attempt at humor to be cute, if not actually funny, but this was a serious situation, and her instincts were practically screaming at her that something was wrong.

"No, it's... warm." Pyrrha heard Jaune getting to his feet in the darkness and they continued forward, not really having any better options other than turning back.

The pair continued forward until they found a strange orange glowing pointy object that seemed to be hanging in midair, Pyrrha's unease became fear sparking down her spine.

Jaune however was excited. "Pyrrha! That's the relic!" He reached out and tried to grab the glowing thing, when it twitched out of his reach the bottom dropped out of Pyrrha's stomach, she had a good idea what it was they were looking at and it definitely wasn't their objective. "Jaune..." Pyrrha began to warn the blond, too late Jaune leapt forward and grabbed the object, as he hung there six glowing orange eyes burst to sickening radiance.

(Yang's POV)

Yang and her partner Blake had reached the temple relatively easily and were surveying the selection of "relics".

"Think this is it?" Yang asked her partner, to which she received a blank look in response, which made her chuckle a little, the quiet black haired, bow wearing girl was too much fun to mess with.

Even better, Blake could take a joke, as her golden eyes twinkled with amusement and a small smile quirked the left corner of her thin mouth. "It's not like this place is difficult to find." Blake stated dryly, Yang wasn't about to argue with her, it was true.

The black haired girl looked at the "relics" quizzically, and for a moment Yang was reminded of a kitten examining a large hoppy bug before pouncing on it, but the moment passed quickly.

"Chess pieces?" Blake asked no one. the yellow and black pair split up to examine the various "relics" they were indeed all chess pieces, two of each type, with a few missing.

"I guess we should pick one." Blake stated.

Yang grabbed the first piece to catch her eye and presented a white knight piece to her partner. "How about a cute little pony?" Yang asked playfully, Blake's half smile returned as she rolled her eyes in amusement.

"Sure."

Taking advantage of the quiet, Yang asked a question that had been nagging at her since she'd met the quiet girl last night. "So... Blake, why'd you help Ruby out yesterday?" Blake's answer was drowned out by a high pitched scream of terror. Both girls whirled toward the noise, weapons held ready. "Some girl's in trouble!" Yang cried out, unaware that the source of the scream had in fact been Jaune.

(Indigo's POV)

Indigo and Noctus arrived at the temple clearing just in time to hear the panicked scream. Instantly Indigo's joking demeanor vanished, his eyes hardened and glowing pinpricks of indigo light formed in the center of each pupil as he raised Jormungandr's scope to his eye and used the magnification with his Semblance to look through the trees for the source of the scream, so it was that he had his scope's magnification to it's limit and saw the Deathstalker burst out of a cave, with Jaune Arc hanging from it's glowing amber colored stinger, despite the situation, Indigo couldn't help but find the situation the bumbling knight was in hilarious, though of course he was worried for his friend's safety, especially when the Deathstalker threw Jaune off of it's tail and sent him flying away.

"HEADS UP!" Both Noctus and Indigo's heads snapped up to see Ruby falling from the sky, both boys were completely dumbfounded, and their shock hit even harder when Jaune flew through the air and collided with Ruby in midair sending both Hunter trainees into the branches of a tree.

"Yeeehaa!" A girl's jubilant voice rang through the clearing as an Ursa Major burst into the clearing and collapsed, a girl with short orange hair a white shirt and pink skirt fell off the Ursa's back giggling like crazy, a black haired boy in a green eastern style tailcoat staggered out from behind the monster, Indigo heard him speak to his partner though gasps of exertion.

"Nora... *gasp*... please... *gasp*... don't ever do that again."

The girl didn't answer, as she had already dashed over to the temple and was examining the "relics" which Indigo had realized for the first time were chess pieces, she grabbed a white rook and, while Indigo Noctus, Yang and her partner, who Indigo recognized as the cat Faunus girl from yesterday, watched as the girl started dancing with her chess piece and singing "I'm Queen of the castle! I'm Queen of the castle!"

Her partner yelled. "NORA!"

The ginger girl, Nora, giggled tipped her head to the side to drop the rook into her palm, then she began skipping over to her partner with a bright "coming Ren!"

The cat Faunus girl was still looking at the ginger in startlement. "Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" She asked no one in particular.

"Yes, yes she did." Indigo replied, though he knew she hadn't been looking for reply. She glared at him, he grinned at her. Ruby jumped out of the tree she'd landed in, leaving Jaune hanging by one leg from a branch, while Yang and Ruby moved to hug each other in joy Indigo headed over to get Jaune out of the tree.

"You seem to be doing well for yourself, Jauney-boy."

"By what stretch of the imagination does this look like me doing well?" Jaune shot back.

"You aren't dead, you aren't injured, and you've made it to the objective, that's pretty good in my book."

Suddenly Jaune looked panicked. "Indigo! Look up!"

The blue haired sniper did as Jaune suggested and saw Weiss fall from the sky from the claws of a massive Nevermore, panic hit him hard, he scrambled up the tree then he ran along a branch and leapt into the air at the right moment, he caught Weiss in midair, then he aimed Jormungandr at the ground and fired the rest of his clip, the kickback from the repetitive shots slowed their fall so that when they landed they fell into a tangled, but unharmed pile of limbs.

"My hero." Weiss drawled sarcastically as she untangled herself from her rescuer, who, truth be told probably wouldn't have minded if they had stayed tangled for a could more second.

"No thanks needed, Frost Fairy." Mumbled Indigo, who had gotten the breath knocked out of him when Weiss had landed on him, he only got a half hearted frown in reply to the nickname.

Both got up unsteadily as the others surrounded them, Indigo ejected the empty clip and replaced it with a fresh one. Then as if someone out in the cosmos had decided that things were getting too quiet, from one end of the clearing Pyrrha burst in with a huge Deathstalker on her tail, and on the other end of the clearing a pair of initiates, one boy and one girl dashed in with a massive apelike Grimm with bone spikes growing from it's body, the boy had a pair of swords in his hands, and the girl wore a pair of strange looking gloves hooked up to Dust vials, the boy's longer sword blade split in two and he aimed the newly divided point at the creature and fired three shots from a gun that was apparently built into the sword, it just annoyed the monster, a jet of flames shot from the girl's left glove and splashed against the Grimm's ripped chest and seemed to do virtually nothing.

"Noctus, grab a relic, I'll stall that ape thing long enough for those two to grab their own relic, then we need to draw it off, three giant Grimm is too much for even the twelve of us, but the four of us might be able to take this one monster." Noctus nodded, then he dashed over to the temple and grabbed a white bishop piece, Indigo levelled Jormungandr at the ape beast's head and fired, the shot hit between the monster's four glowing red eyes, followed by another and another, the boy with the two swords turned and struck out at the ape-thing, the girl kept running for the temple, her partner launched himself off of a figure made of flame as the ape monster brought his fist down where he'd stood, right on the flame clone, which promptly exploded.

The flash from the blast seemed to hurt the ape-thing more than the explosion itself, and that merely seemed to annoy it, with a bone rattling roar the ape Grimm reared onto it's hind legs and beat it's chest in anger, then it dropped back onto all fours and began trying to swat the dual wielding boy. The young man was dodging for all he was worth, he seemed to know where the creature was about to strike before it moved, Indigo wondered how he did it, since his Semblance was very clearly clones, and not precognition, he looked through the scope at the other boy, after a few seconds he figured it out, the boy never once took his bicolored eyes off of the Grimm, he wasn't seeing the future, he was reading the ape Grimm's movements, and doing it nearly perfectly. Indigo pushed his admiring shock to the back of his mind as he squeezed off several more shots, which seemed to do as little damage as the first shot had, but they did seem to annoy the Grimm, Indigo stole a quick glance behind himself and saw the auburn haired girl with the Dust gloves had grabbed the second white bishop.

"Alright! Let's draw this thing away, break left." Indigo yelled to the dual wielding boy, then he glanced over to the others, the Deathstalker's stinger was trapped in an iceberg, likely Weiss' doing, and the other were running off. The boy showed no sign of acknowledgment, but he leapt over a massive fist, then vaulted off of one of his clones to dash left, just as Indigo, Noctus, and the girl set off running in the same direction, the dual wielding boy shot a jet of flames from his red bladed shortsword, which only served to block the Grimm's vision for a second as it bulled through it, but it was enough to allow him to launch himself forward off of three consecutive clones, affording him distance from the creature as he ran for the other three teens, he reached them as all four entered the forest. In his head Indigo calculated how long they'd been in the Emerald Forest, fifty minutes, just ten minutes left before his plan could be put into action, the only thing he could think of that might hurt the ape Grimm.

The monster in question was bellowing in rage as it smashed it's way through trees.

"Names." Indigo demanded of the two strangers.

"Obsidian." The boy answered.

"Diana."

Indigo's mind raced as he ran through his hastily constructed plan.

"Noctus, what's your Semblance?"

"Strength, but it won't be enough to go head to head with that thing."

"Good thing you don't have to then, you and Obsidian hold it's attention, you use your ice to slow it down, Diana, support them however you can, all you guys need to do is hold it's attention for ten minutes."

"And then?" Obsidian asked.

"You seem to know something about these things Obsidian, how would it stand up to an electrified sniper bullet with enough force behind it to penetrate a Deathstalker's armor?"

Obsidian's mouth twisted into a feral smile and his eyes began to burn with unnerving eagerness. "Can you hit it in the eye?"

Indigo's own smile took on a feral cast as well. "Easily."

"Then aim for the upper left eye, the hide on a Kong Emperor is tougher than a Deathstalker's carapace, there's not much chance you'll be able to pierce it."

Indigo nodded to the dual wielder. The blue haired sniper ran the time again, six more minutes before boost mode would be usable. The four initiates separated as the Kong Emperor reached them. Obsidian leapt off of the trunk of a tree and unleashed a storm of slashes at the massive Grimm, then he vaulted off of a clone and vanished into the trees, Noctus dashed out from behind a different tree and held Fenrir out in front of himself before speaking a command phrase to the ax. "Activate Ragnarok Protocol: Fimbulvetr." All four vents opened on the ax blades and began spewing ice, snow, and Dust everywhere, but mostly on the Kong, which definitely didn't seem to like the cold as it bellowed and aimed a punch at Noctus, only to be knocked sideways as the earth lurched under it's feet, Diana crouched behind the monster, her hands glowing brown and pressed flat against the ground. Obsidian propelled himself in circles around the monster with his clones as the beast roared and tried to hit him, but only catching the clones left in the heterochromatic fighter's wake. Three minutes.

When Obsidian began to slow down Noctus ran forward and blasted the monster with his ice Dust shotgun, then he rolled to the side, out of the way of a massive fist coming down like a hammer, then blasting again at the creature's back legs, Diana hurled a few bolts of lightning and shards of stone and ice, each hit just annoyed the monster, but it defintely kept it's attention away from Indigo, who counted seconds down to zero, flipped the switch, aimed, breathed, and on his exhale, fired.

The electrically charged bullet made a streak of blue light as it flew through the air and struck the monster dead center in it's top left eye, the force of the impact snapped it's head back as blood flew from the ruined eye and sparkled with indigo electricity. The massive, twenty foot tall gorilla Grimm dropped like ten tons of stone and began to smoke.

(Half an hour later, Indigo's POV)

"Russel Trush, Dove Bronzewing, Cardin Winchester, and Sky Lark." Ozpin called four boys onto the stage as their pictures and a letter apiece showed on a massive screen.

"The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces, from this day on you will be known as Team CaRDinaL, led by: Cardin Winchester." The newly minted leader was a tall, broad shouldered boy in a thick breastplate with a bird symbol on it, blue eyes and burnt orange hair, Indigo didn't like the look in his eyes, it spoke of arrogance and anger, this boy, and his team, would be trouble.

As Team CRDL filed offstage Ozpin called up another quartet of students. "Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos." Again the pictures of the four teens showed on the screen with a letter, which Indigo now realized was the letter they contributed to the team name.

"The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces, from this day on you will be known as Team JuNiPeR, led by: Jaune Arc." Jaune looked like he'd just been hit between the eyes by a Kong Emperor's fist. "M-me?!" The blond knight stammered. Ozpin smiled at him over his coffee mug. "Congratulations young man." The headmaster spoke warmly to Jaune who was so flabbergasted that he didn't notice his partner's playful punch to his arm until it was too late, caught off guard the clueless swordsman was knocked off his feet to a great deal of laughter from the gathered crowd.

"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long, together the four of you retrieved the white knight pieces, from this day on you will be known as Team RWBY (Ruby), led by: Ruby Rose." The pint sized reaper looked almost as startled as Jaune had been, though that was quickly replaced by an expression of suffocation as her sister glomped onto her and yelled "I'm so proud of you!" Weiss however didn't look proud, she looked affronted, and Indigo knew that it was because she had expected to be named leader herself, personally, Indigo thought Ozpin had made the right choice.

As Team RWBY filed offstage to stand with Team JNPR the final four names were called.

"Indigo Aesir, Noctus Lupin, Diana Grey, Obsidian Thanos, the four of you retrieved the white bishop pieces, from now on you will be known as Team INdiGO, led by: Indigo Aesir."

Indigo felt a jolt of shock and terror, what did he know about leadership or responsibility, he was a joker, he rarely took anything seriously, so why did Ozpin pick him? The blue haired sniper shook his head free of those thoughts, whatever the reason, he was the leader of Team INGO now, and he would do his best to fulfill that duty, he heard Ozpin comment.

"It's going to be an... interesting year." No shit.

* * *

(Author's note: And here it is, Team INGO's initiation, enjoy, and please review, thank you.)


	9. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The First Day

(Indigo's POV)

Indigo woke up with a smile on his face, he was the only one. As the blue haired team leader swung his legs out of bed stood and stretched, his teammates came wake with varying degrees of hostility, Diana looked like she'd immolate the first person to talk to her, her ratty sleep clothes, which Indigo realized for the first time consisted of an oversized gray shirt and hopefully, though he thankfully couldn't see for himself without a minimum effort he had no intention of ever making, underwear. Considering she'd be spending the next four years sleeping in the same room as three guys Indigo thought that the fact that she either hadn't thought about that fact or simply didn't care told quite a bit about her personality, the fact that her bed was messier than any of the guys' and that she didn't care in the least that she had drool on her left cheek and her hair was a disaster told him something else about her as she threw open the dorm's single closet and retrieved the lone female school uniform, which she then carried into the dorm's bathroom and slammed the door behind her, a few seconds later the shower started. Noctus just growled at Indigo and Obsidian, blinked bleary green eyes, grabbed a school uniform and walked out of the dorm.

Thirty minutes later Team INGO was showered, dressed, and heading to the dining hall for breakfast. Noctus had gone to the men's showers one floor down from their dorm earlier. Indigo saw him with a steaming mug of something Indigo assumed was coffee leaning against a tree in the courtyard, a faraway look in his eyes. The blue haired sniper separated from his team and sat alone with his plate of potatoes, eggs, sausages, and bacon.

Indigo walked into his Grimm Studies class behind his Team. Obsidian was leading the group in and his steps were jerky and eager as if he was experiencing a massive adrenaline rush just by entering the classroom. He, and everyone else in the class, were instantly disappointed in Professor Port, a fat elderly man in a maroon waistcoat and a glorious mustache that covered his entire mouth.

"Monsters! Deeemons! Prowlers of the Night!" Professor Port's booming voice echoed around the class with more theatrics behind them than even Indigo thought were strictly necessary. "Yes the Creatures of Grimm have many names! But I simply refer to them as prey!" The portly professor paused briefly, as if expecting the class to laugh at his poor attempt at humor, nobody did and he cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"Huntsmen! Huntresses!" He winked at Yang who was in the front row, and who let out an uncomfortable, creeped out laugh. Indigo himself rolled his eyes and tossed a crumpled piece of paper onto her desk as Port turned away to continue his speech, but Indigo had stopped listening, Yang opened the paper and snorted in laughter, it was a quick drawing of Yank standing next to a pile of ashes entitled "The Yang solution to creepy old men." In order to train his observational skills Indigo had taken up sketching things and the picture was a good one, for a rush job. The blonde brawler flashed him a conspiratorial smile over her shoulder, Indigo grinned back at her. The blue haired sniper figured that out of the friends he'd met since his arrival at Beacon Yang would be the most fun to be around. Unlike most guys who wanted to spend time with the fiery girl there was no attraction behind his interest. He was aware that she was gorgeous, it simply didn't matter to him, he just liked her sense of humor, and felt they would get along well.

Indigo turned his attention to the member of Team RWBY who was most definitely not in the friendzone, especially since they didn't even have the beginnings of a friendship. Weiss Schnee was currently grinding her perfect teeth in frustration at the antics of her leader, who was balancing a book and an apple on a pencil with one finger. It was an impressive feat, but the white haired heiress' steadily rising blood pressure was even more fun to watch. Ruby's head dropped to her desk and she began to snore audibly as Indigo blinked in surprize at her sudden about-face in behavior, Weiss just looked more annoyed, and Yang and Blake, seated on the other side of Ruby from Weiss, ignored the partners, when Ruby straightened and began picking her nose Weiss' face went from frustrated to murderous. Indigo tossed her a crumpled paper that bounced off of her forehead and onto her desk. Momentarily distracted, Weiss shot Indigo a glare, to which he responded with a grin, the white haired heiress opened the paper and goggled at the picture within, a perfect pencil sketch of Indigo's view of Jaune from the initiation, hanging from the stinger of the Deathstalker, he'd added a "hang in there!' under the sketch. Weiss' rage was broken up by sheer confusion and she looked back at him, he smiled and shrugged, Weiss rolled her eyes and turned back to the front of the class, the corner of her mouth quirked up a fraction of an inch, mission accomplished, explosion averted, but that kind of distraction tactic would only work once.

Obsidian's hand shot into the air, obviously in response to something the Professor had said. Since Indigo hadn't been paying the slightest attention to Port's ramblings other than to determine that he'd spent most of the class telling a long-winded story that had very little to do with the subject matter of the class, he was baffled as to what Obsidian seemed to be volunteering for, until he saw the covered cage Professor Port had dragged into the classroom, then it became clear, the class was about to be treated to a practical demonstration of Grimm fighting, and Obsidian, being who he was, had leapt at the chance.

Ten minutes later Obsidian Thanos stood in front of the class dressed in his combat clothes, red and black camo patterned cargo pants, combat boots, and a black tank top, his swords were sheathed. the long blade, called Phobos, hung down his back, and the short blade, Deimos, dangled from his belt, Professor Port had a covered cage standing next to him that rattled and shook. Obsidian was eyeing the cage with a hungry expression, his bicolored eyes burned with vicious hatred of the creature in the cage and his mouth twisted in a cruel sneer, Indigo watched as his Teammate's body tensed in anticipation, the blue haired sniper watched the Grimm hating swordsman draw his black bladed bastard sword and hold the blade across his body, as Port lifted his ax to slash the lock off of his newly uncovered cage.

"Let the match..." The elderly Huntsman began.

(Obsidian's POV)

"...Begin!" Obsidian barely registered the old man's voice, his attention was wholly on the darkened cage, a box really, not a proper cage, but he didn't really care about the distinction. He felt the wild joy of the hunt, a thrill of eagerness at the prospect of killing whatever beast was about to come crashing out of the box. In order to draw out the experience Obsidian drew only one of his swords, Phobos, and held the three and a half foot sword in both hands, ready to face his opponent. Professor Port slashed the lock off of the box. Obsidian's grin widened as a Boarbatusk charged full tilt out at him. The obsessive swordsman launched himself upwards off of a clone, opened his sword, and fired three shots at the boar monster's armored back, the shots just annoyed the creature but that was what he'd been aiming for, Phobos snapped closed as Obsidian landed and both combatants turned to face each other, the monster's four orange eyes burned with hatred, Obsidian's orange and silver gaze was just as filled with all consuming hatred. The boar demon charged, and the Huntsman met that charge with a heavy swing of his blade, the edge of the black bastard sword couldn't penetrate the armor plates and thick hide, but the force of the blow knocked the creature off course, then, as the Boarbatusk rushed past him, Obsidian opened Phobos' blade and fired four more shots at the Boarbatusk's back legs, the nine millimetre Dust rounds shattered the delicate bones just above the creature's hooves, the Boarbatusk began thrashing around in a panic, it's opponent walked forward casually, enjoying the sight of the monster squealing and squirming in fear, as he approached the beast he activated his aura, black energy threaded with lines of orange and silver surrounded the young man and absorbed a hit from the lamed monster's tusks before Obsidian kicked it onto it's back, thrust Phobos into the creature's guts, opened the blade, and unloaded the remaining bullets in Phobos' cylinder into the dying monster's torso, red suffused Obsidian's vision as he ripped the blade out of the dead creature's shredded innards, snapped it closed, and with a single vicious slash, removed the monster's head.

(Ruby's POV)

Ruby was shocked, the amount of brutality shown by Obsidian at the end of his fight was unnerving. _And this guy is one of Indigo's teammates?_ Ruby couldn't see it, Ruby and Jaune had both ended up with great teams, Weiss' grumpiness notwithstanding, but all three of Indigo's teammates scared Ruby, they all looked like they wanted to attack anyone who approached them, the only reason Ruby would ever want to spend time near Team INGO was their leader, at least Indigo was still his usual friendly self. Professor Port announced the end of class, and Ruby turned to see Weiss stalking off with a piece of paper clenched in her hand, a minute later Indigo went after her, tossing a wink at Ruby as he exited the classroom.

(Indigo's POV)

"Weiss! Wait up!" Indigo called after the heiress, who stopped and turned to face the approaching boy.

"What is it Aesir? I swear, if you've come to mock me then you will regret it!" The white haired girl snapped, a white Glyph formed in her palm and she cocked her arm back like she was about to throw it.

Indigo skidded to a stop and held his hands up in surrender. "Stop! Don't shoot! I'm just a concerned citizen! I ain't meant no harm to nobody." Weiss growled and threw the glyph, which expanded as it left her hand, Indigo ducked and twisted to the left, then he dashed under the Glyph, spun low and swept the Schnee heiress' legs out from under her, reacting on pure instinct Indigo lunged forward and put his forearm under her head so she wouldn't hit it on the floor. Unfortunately, this left Weiss lying on the floor with Indigo on top of her, his forearm under the back of her head, their faces inches apart, Indigo felt his face burning, the next thing the blue haired boy knew a Glyph had sprung up between them and slammed him against the ceiling.

Weiss Schnee glared up at her captive, who was still being jammed against the ceiling of the hallway. "P-P-Pervert!" She yelped, her face was so red Indigo could almost swear he saw steam rising from the top of her head, Indigo felt a surge of annoyance, but he suppressed it before it hit his face.

"I'm not a pervert." Indigo had told that to multiple women, they always assumed the worst when they learned what his Semblance did. "I was just trying to make sure your head didn't hit the stone floor."

"Yes, after tripping me! How do I know you didn't just arrange that?" Weiss demanded.

Indigo rolled his eyes and sighed. "I tripped you so that you wouldn't attack me again, so much for that plan."

Weiss' mouth twitched. "Yes, it does seem to have backfired rather badly."

"Tell me about it, so... Could you let me down? Please?"

Weiss waved her hand and the Glyph vanished, leaving Indigo to fall to the floor with a thud and a low "ow".

Indigo got to his feet slowly, his body ached from the impact, but his aura was rapidly easing the pain. "Was that strictly necessary?"

Weiss smirked. "No, but it was more fun."

Indigo rolled his dark blue eyes. "You know Snowy, you have anger issues, have you ever thought about seeing someone for that?"

Her smirk vanished. "What are you here for Aesir? Spit it out and then leave me alone."

"Alright, as Milady commands." Indigo smirked as the icy heiress snarled.

"I was being serious earlier, I actually am here because I want to help." Indigo said seriously.

Weiss scoffed. "What could an idiot like you help me with?"

"How about providing an outlet for your frustrations at not being made leader of your team? Or by explaining Ruby's behavior today? Heck, I could just draw you another dumb picture, it might help improve your mood."

"Yeah, what was this about?" Weiss waved the drawing she still held in her hand.

Indigo smiled. "I drew that from memory from Initiation, it was right before he got thrown and hit Ruby in midair."

Weiss looked confused by that. "But you were in the clearing, I saw you from the back of the Nevermore, unless that was someone else with blue hair and a sniper rifle I saw."

"No, that was me, I used my rifle's scope, and my Semblance to look through the trees and see him."

"Your Semblance?"

"It's called Phase Vision, I can see through solid objects by concentrating."

"Oh." Weiss nodded, then her ice blue eyes widened and she hugged her chest, as if trying to shield herself from his gaze, her ears turned bright red, Indigo rolled his eyes.

"No I don't use it to be a pervert, and why are you putting your arms in front of your chest? They wouldn't do anything to stop me if I did decide to abuse my power but it's pretty easy to tell when I'm using my Semblance, a pinprick of blue light appears in the center of both my pupils. Besides, peeking like that is disrespectful, and way too easy to hold any appeal to me, I prefer the challenge of actually getting into a relationship to copping out like that."

Weiss cocked her head to the side. "You don't seem like you care all that much about respect otherwise, so why this?"

Indigo snorted. "You think I don't respect you?"

"Obviously."

"Weiss, if I didn't respect you, and heck, _like_ you I'd either ignore you, or be far worse to you than I am right now, besides, being flippant is a far cry from not respecting basic dignity, I tease you and am flippant with you because I enjoy the way you react to it, I pick on you because not only are you an easy target, but you're tough enough to take it, if you weren't then I wouldn't act the way I do around you, there are two types of people that I tend to like almost immediately, people who can take a joke, and people who present a challenge."

"I assume you've placed me in the second category."

Indigo smiled down at her. "Yup, you're a challenge alright, and that's fine, I like challenges."

Weiss' ears turned slightly pink, but she otherwise didn't acknowledge what he'd said. "You said you were here to try to help me?"

Indigo nodded. "If you'll let me, at minimum I can give you some advice about what I've figured out about leadership from my own team."

Weiss sighed. "Fine, I suppose it couldn't hurt."

"Why do you want to be a leader?"

Weiss blinked at the blunt question, but she answered without a hint of hesitation. "I believe that I can do a better job of leading the team than Ruby can."

Indigo nodded. "Alright, if you were to become leader, what would you change?"

"Ruby is so disorganized and sloppy, if I was leader I certainly wouldn't put up with how she was acting in class this morning, for example."

"If that's your reason for wanting to become the leader of team RWBY then you shouldn't be leader."

"What? That's ridiculous!"

"No it isn't. A Hunter team isn't a military squad, if things went the way you wanted you would cause unnecessary conflict within the team, Ruby's sister is on that team, and if you, in your hypothetical position as leader attempted to curb Ruby's personality with your authority in the way you are suggesting Yang would turn against you, Blake would likely support her as she doesn't seem to like you much, no one would listen to you, you would accomplish nothing."

Weiss flinched at the brutal honesty in his voice before rallying. "Ruby is nothing more than an immature child, she shouldn't be a leader."

Indigo shook his head. "You are being too hard on her, yes she's immature, hyperactive, and doesn't seem to care very much about her studies, but as far as I've seen she has the better attitude toward leadership between the two of you, you want to take the leadership position in order to enforce changes you wish to see happen, regardless of the feelings of your teammates, Ruby however wants nothing more than to help her team succeed, she wishes she could be worthy of her position, you believe that the only position worthy of you is hers, a team leader needs to put their team before their own desires, you haven't been able to do this, and that is why Ruby is the leader, and not you."

Weiss frowned. "You've been a team leader for less than a day, and you don't seem to be big on responsibility, so where did that come from?"

Indigo's cocky smirk returned, it was like it was stuck on his face, he could make his expression serious for a while, but the smirk always returned. "You jump to a lot of conclusions, I'm a leader now, I need to take it at least a little seriously, after all my team is made up of a hostilely antisocial Dust witch, a wolf Faunus who trusts no one, and, well, you saw Obsidian earlier?"

Weiss nodded.

"Well that seems to be fairly mild for him when a Grimm is concerned, he's obsessed with killing monsters for some reason... Not that I don't understand where he's coming from." The last part had been under Indigo's breath and Weiss didn't seem to react to it for which Indigo was glad, he may have liked the icy duelist, but he wasn't ready to share that much of his past with anyone at the time. He continued talking. "So you understand why I've needed to spend time thinking about leadership, Ruby has a great team, you included, so she can afford to take her position a little less seriously, though it does sound like she could use a talk about being too lax with her position, I could do it, that way she'd get the advice from someone she trusts, and it doesn't mess with your team dynamic like it would if you tried to get her to change yourself."

Weiss nodded. "That does seem like a better option than causing trouble, though i still don't understand why you're doing this."

"I told you Snowball, I like you, besides, this will help your entire team and Ruby and Yang are my friends, that Blake girl doesn't seem too bad either, so why shouldn't I help them." Indigo shrugged, though his smirk widened into a smile when Weiss went back to glaring at him for the nickname.

"Are the nicknames really necessary?" The heiress asked.

"No, but it is more fun this way." Indigo tossed Weiss' previous words back at her.

Weiss' beautiful crystal blue eyes narrowed. "Nobody likes a wiseass Aesir."

Indigo grinned widely. "Are you kidding Weiss? As long as the wiseass is talking to someone else everybody loves him."

Weiss rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation, Indigo laughed.

* * *

(Author's Note: Chapter five is finally complete, enjoy, and please review, I can't know how I'm doing unless you do)


	10. Chapter 6

Chapter six: Classes

(Goodwitch's POV)

Professor Glynda Goodwitch looked around at her students, her experience as an educator told her the best course of action for the first day of classes, and that was action, after initiation yesterday the students would have a lot of energy that a day of lectures would have failed miserably at resolving, these teens were all warriors, and the best outlet for their energy was combat, they could save technical discussions for another day.

"Good afternoon, and welcome to Combat Class, there seems to be little point in beating around the bush, this class is here to make each of you into the best fighters you can be, so I'm going to have a few practice duels to start our year off, do we have any volunteers?" Goodwitch's stern, lime green eyes swept the room before coming to rest on the first volunteer, a tall, lean young man with long hair in varying shades of blue, a blue and black sniper rifle hung across his back, a quick search through her memory gave her his name. "Mr. Aesir, very well, is there anyone who would like to face him in the ring?" Almost immediately a pale hand shot into the air. "Miss Schnee, alright, both fighters make their way to the dueling ring."

(Weiss' POV)

Weiss Schnee didn't know exactly why she'd volunteered to fight Indigo, there was just something about him that irritated her, but even she would admit that annoyance wasn't enough to make her this excited at the prospect of fighting the blue haired wiseass. Nevertheless, she wanted to face him in a sparring ring, maybe it was the fighter in her that was unsatisfied with their previous encounter, or maybe it was embarrassment, her ears heated as she remembered the how she'd felt as he'd stopped her head from hitting the ground, once again she felt his weight pressing her to the floor, his warm breath against her face from inches away, her face burned at the memory, just another reason to kick his insufferable ass.

Indigo stood in the center of the ring, Jormungandr was strapped to his back as he watched Weiss step into the ring, her multi action Dust rapier, Myrtenaster, hung at her waist, and her pointed chin was lifted in regal distain, which had nothing to do with the fact that he was half a foot taller than her, damn it. The snow white heiress drew her blade and pointed it at her opponent, who reached over his shoulder, flipped the switch on the rifle's stock, and took out a pair of knives from the compartment that had snapped open in the stock. The blue haired sniper flipped both knives into backhanded grips, it was a smart move, Weiss admitted, his rifle would be of limited utility in the close quarters of the sparring ring, and she knew that he had the speed and precise movements necessary to fight effectively with those seven inch long, curved blades.

Summoning a movement Glyph under her own feet Weiss flashed forward with a lightning fast thrust, Indigo took one step back and to his left and Myrtenaster's tip passed right through the space his chest had occupied a second before. Weiss was forced to leap back to avoid a knife slash, as the blade arced in front of her eyes electrical sparks trailed from the back of the single edged knife, '_oh, they're electrified, that complicates things slightly'_ Weiss thought as her blue haired opponent continued to press his attack with a second slash aimed at eye level. The Schnee heiress instinctively jerked back, away from the strike, Indigo stomped on the heel of her left foot to disrupt her balance further before kneeing the girl with his other leg and sending her tumbling to the ground. For the second time during this fight Weiss' instincts took hold, this time they saved her rather than being used against her, the white haired duelist rolled backwards and to her feet, in the blink of an eye she rushed Indigo and thrust her rapier at the young man's chest, the experienced knife fighter used the bare minimum amount of movement to dodge each thrust.

(Indigo's POV)

"Woah, nearly got me there, Snow Kitten." Weiss snarled at the nickname and redoubled her attack, Indigo smirked and backed up, dodging each strike in her flurry of attacks with the minimum possible amount of movement before bringing up his left knife to turn aside a thrust. The instant the knife made contact with Myrtenaster's blade electricity flowed from the knife blade down the length of the rapier and into Weiss' body through her hand, the white haired girl yelped at the shock. Indigo kicked her in the side of her left knee, then he raked both of Jormungandr's fangs across Weiss' midsection, her aura stopped the sharp force trauma, but did little to nothing for the electricity that was suddenly coursing through her small body. With a scream of rage and pain Weiss triggered her rapier's Dust Selector, it came to rest on a pale blue Dust that matched her eyes, light the color of the Dust spilled from the hilt of the powerful rapier before Weiss stabbed her slim glowing blade into the ground and sent a wave of ice at Indigo who leapt backwards, out of the way. The blue haired sniper didn't get away clear, his right foot got caught in the ice, though this only slowed him down a little as he flared his midnight blue aura and shattered the ice surrounding his foot.

As the burst of dark blue light faded from around the sniper's body he flashed a cocky grin at his opponent's startled face. "That's right Snowbird, I've learned a few aura tricks other than my Semblance, I don't like using them, since they run me dry pretty quickly, but that doesn't mean I _won't_ use them." Indigo's breath was coming out heavier than it had before, he could feel his heart beating rapidly against his ribs as well, this was the other reason he didn't like using any of his aura techniques: they were physically draining on top of their aura cost, but they were each quite useful to compensate for the price. Weiss was across the combat arena and in Indigo's face in a flash of white, the blue haired sniper was hit with a thrust of her rapier, though he managed at the last second to twist his body into making it a glancing hit. Two electrically buzzing knives provided Indigo's answer to the strike, both blades slashed an X on Weiss' torso, sending her reeling back with the pain of two intense electric shocks.

"What's the matter Princess? Having a little trouble?" All Indigo needed was one more mistake, and Weiss, with her pride and fragile ego, was easy to goad into hasty action. Flames washed along the length of the rapier in the infuriated heiress' hand, and with three movement glyphs in a row Weiss sent herself rocketing towards her cockliy grinning opponent, who, to everyone's shock, dropped his knives and ducked under the tip of the rapier, with one hand grabbed and pushed her arm up, a stomp on her instep and a quick movement of his shoulders and Indigo flipped Weiss over his shoulder and onto the ground, turning all of her Semblance boosted speed against her. While she lay on the ground, stunned, Indigo put a boot between her shoulder blades and unslung Jormungandr before pointing it at her head.

As Weiss looked up from her prone position, her head turned to look behind herself, Indigo's voice took on a businesslike tone and his smirk vanished.

"I win."

After a moment of silence Professor Goodwitch called the match and Indigo took his boot off of Weiss' back before offering his hand to help her up, with a snarl Weiss pushed the hand away and got up on her own, straightening her skirt and jacket as she did so.

"It was a match Weiss, I found an opening and I took it, there's no point getting mad about it, just get stronger so that it doesn't happen again."

(Weiss' POV)

_How dare he! That insufferable blue asshole humiliated me in front of our whole class!_ Weiss was fuming after Combat Class, Aesir had outmatched her, pushing her buttons with embarrassing ease, and she had fallen into each trap. She'd only scored glancing hits while he scored hit after hit, each one punctuated by painful electrical shocks, and worst of all, he'd been _right_, her temper over small slights was a glaring weakness and it had cost her that match. Today had been a series of embarrassing lessons at the hands of the most annoying boy she'd ever met, which just made her grind her teeth, though she recognized that he'd been correct, it was still galling to have been taught anything about herself by a wiseass joker she'd met two days ago. Because she was so busy fuming Weiss nearly ran into her partner.

"Oh! Sorry Weiss, I didn't see you there." Ruby hurriedly apologized. _Indigo was right about her too, I have been unfair to her, that's going to change now,_ Weiss shook her head. "No it was my fault, Ruby, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." Ruby gaped at her for a second and Weiss fought down a surge of annoyance and shame, was that how she'd come across as? Did they all see her as so arrogant that she couldn't admit when she made a mistake? She needed to fix that.

"Hey, Ruby? How do you like your coffee?"

The red reaper looked puzzled. "Cream and five sugars, why?"

Weiss barely kept from rolling her eyes, _that explains so much_. "I want to apologize for how I've been acting over the past couple of days, my behavior has been inexcusable, and all over little things, so we're going to go to the coffee shop on campus and we're going to talk, because we're partners and we should get to know each other."

Ruby's eyes glittering with emotion should have been a warning sign, but Weiss was still taken off guard when the younger girl threw her arms around the white haired heiress and squealed with excitement. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou! We're going to be the best team EVER!"

With that the excitable leader of Team RWBY took off, practically dragging her partner behind her, Weiss felt a smile begin to work it's way onto her face, Ruby's enthusiasm reminded Weiss of her own little sister sometimes, though last time she'd checked Nieve couldn't break the sound barrier whenever she wanted to, she also didn't have more energy than a room full of two year olds hopped up on the biggest sugar rush in history. Weiss resolved right then to be the best teammate Ruby would ever have, the crimsonette would need all the support she could get the next few years.

(Author's note: enjoy, and review retcon: I'd posted this chapter originally just before I saw 'it's brawl in the family' so I've now apparently created a third Schnee sister, woohoo, go me! yes I know I'm weird deal with it)


	11. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: Trouble Brewing and first steps

(Unknown POV, Unknown Location)

The leader of the Fangbreakers stood before the tall window in his office, looking out at the sun setting over the sprawling city below. He was a big man slightly past his prime, sliver was working it's way through the neatly clipped black hair framing the brutally handsome face. Cold blue eyes looked out on the city of his birth, it would be the seat of his crusade to purify Humanity of the animals that had infected their gene pool, then, once Man had been freed of the taint that had weakened them they would finally begin driving the Grimm from their walls with the combined might of a pure Humanity, and he would be the one who ushered in this glorious age. Leader was so consumed by his dreams of a Human utopia that he didn't notice his assistant approaching from behind, he barely managed to suppress a startled twitch as the man behind him cleared his throat.

"Ah, what do you have for me, Brother?" Leader was fastidious in enforcing the rule that all members refer to each other as Brother or Sister within the main headquarters, advancements in information gathering technology, especially within the city they were currently residing in, made him paranoid about their identities being discovered, as that would compromise many important operations.

His assistant, a tall, skinny and extremely competent young man, bowed and spoke in his usual calm, measured fashion. "Sir, the Winter Wolf has made another move in Vale, he killed Foraker's group, it shows all the signs of an attack of opportunity."

Leader frowned and stroked his clean shaven jaw in thought. "That means that he lives in Vale, or that he's hunkered down there in preparation for another attack, we've finally pinned down a location on that Kingdom hopping mutt, send a Tracker to Vale with orders to hunt the Winter Wolf, choose someone particularly vicious."

Once again his assistant bowed deeply at the waist. "As you command Sir, I'll send _her_ in."

Leader felt a satisfied smile form on his face, with that woman on the job, the Winter Wolf would be dead within two weeks.

(Ruby's POV, Beacon Academy)

Ruby Rose was bored out of her mind and looking for something, _anything_ to take her attention away from Professor Port, who was busy telling the "thrilling tale" of how, in his youth the portly professor had defended the town from a herd of Nightmares. Ruby caught enough through Port's ramblings to know that if anyone else had told her this story it would actually have been really good, but Port's habit of adding boasts and bad jokes in at every opportunity kind of ruined it for the hood wearing leader.

"Psst! Ruby!" A male voice hissed from behind her, the voice caused Ruby to jump in her seat and turn to look over her shoulder at Jaune who had leaned over and was smiling down at her, Ruby's heart fluttered slightly as she smiled back at her dorky friend, though she refused to dwell on the cause.

"Hey Jaune, how are you?" The two leaders had been busy with their respective teams yesterday, so they hadn't had much chance to catch up after initiation.

"I'm doing ok, my team seems great, and the schoolwork doesn't seem too difficult, how about you?"

"Well, other than some grumpiness from Weiss yesterday it's been fine, but apparently Indigo talked to her, because after class Weiss came to me and apologized for how she'd been acting, then she bought me coffee and we talked until curfew, it turns out that she's a lot nicer than how she's been acting so far, she's still pretty much the same, just not angry at me anymore."

Jaune was glad Ruby had been able to resolve the problems she and Weiss had been having ever since their first meeting, with their reconciliation Team RWBY would finally become whole. The pair spent the rest of the class chatting.

(Jaune's POV)

After class Jaune waited for Ruby to finish packing up her stuff, he didn't really have a reason for it, he just felt like spending some more time with his friend.

When Ruby saw Jaune hanging back her head tilted slightly to the side and her large silver eyes narrowed slightly, Jaune thought she looked a little like a confused puppy for a second before a smile lit up her features and made caused Jaune to feel a little lightheaded for an instant, though he ignored the reaction as nothing more than hormones reacting to a pretty girl.

"Hey Jaune, do you wanna hang out for a while? Neither of us has a class for three hours after this." Ruby asked, a soft, hopeful smile tugged at her mouth as she waited for his reply, Jaune didn't have it in him to disappoint that smile, not that he would have if he could.

"Sure, let's go down to Vale, we can catch the next airship back and have half an hour before class starts."

"Okay, but let's go change out of our uniforms first." Ruby suggested.

"Alright, meet you at the landing pad."

Ten minutes later Jaune stood on the landing pad wearing blue jeans, a sky blue t-shirt and an open white button down shirt watching Ruby making her way toward him wearing a dark red t-shirt and black jeans, the metal rose emblem she usually wore at the waist of her combat outfit was clipped to her belt.

"Hey." He greeted his friend, it sounded a little lame in his opinion, but he didn't hear anyone asking for his opinion.

Ruby drew up in front of him. "Hey Jaune, are you sure you'll be okay on the airship?"

Jaune felt like he'd forgotten something. "Huh?"

"Your motion sickness? Did you forget how we're going down into the city?"

The blood drained from Jaune's face, he'd actually been so focused on the trip to Vale with Ruby that it had slipped his mind what the obstacles to their time together would be. The ride down was hell for the blond knight, he spent it with his head buried in a trash can while Ruby rubbed his back. When the airship landed Jaune felt himself recovering almost immediately, thank Oum for aura, Jaune supposed.

As they stood Ruby gave him a concerned look. "Are you going to be ok?"

Jaune smiled over at her. "I'm fine, if I could get some gum I'd be great, my aura is taking care of the last bits of nausea right now, let's go, we've only got a few hours."

"Alright, this was your idea, so where to first?" Ruby asked, accepting his assurance without hesitation.

"Not sure, I'm not from around here, so why don't we wander around, see if anything catches our interest."

Ruby shrugged, she wasn't from Vale either, though she did live nearby so she likely knew the city better than her companion, but the area around the Beacon landing port was pretty new to her as well, they could have fun exploring together. The thought excited the energetic scythe wielder. the pair walked off the exit ramp, there was a large crowd milling around, citydwellers walking to and from work, other students taking advantage of free time and a riot of other people. Ruby grabbed Jaune's wrist as the pair headed through the crush of people, they wove through the crowd and came out the other side with slightly pink faces, Ruby dropped her friend's wrist once the risk of separation in the crowd had passed and Jaune found himself missing the contact, though he refused to dwell on that.

(Ruby's POV)

Ruby hated crowds, the press of people always made her feel overwhelmed, but today, as they had woven through a large, bustling mass of Humanity (and Faunas) Ruby hadn't felt as overwhelmed, just holding onto Jaune's wrist made her feel like she wasn't alone. Like even if she got lost in the crowd he would help guide her out, it was an extremely comforting feeling and to feel it for her sweet, goofy best friend was an awkward realization, but not one she was willing to think too deeply about.

Deciding on impulse Ruby grabbed Jaune's wrist again and dragged him off down a street where she saw signs for a weapon shop, her previous embarrassment was totally forgotten at the prospect of seeing cool new weapons, a girl needs to have her priorities straight after all.

(Jaune's POV)

"Come on! I see a weapons store!" Ruby exclaimed, the next second Jaune felt thin, soft, and warm fingers close over his wrist again, the welcome sensation preceded Ruby dragging him off with surprising strength for her small frame. Ruby burst into the weapons store ready to scrutinize guns and blades of all descriptions, the joyous weapons lover let go of her friend in order to dash over and fawn over a pair of sawed off shotgun/machetes. Jaune couldn't help it as a smile broke across his face, there was something pure about the little red reaper's love of weapons, despite how incongruous that thought may be. When given the chance to examine a new instrument of destruction Ruby's face lit up with a childlike excitement bordering on euphoria, Jaune found he liked seeing his friend so happy, and he would do nearly anything to keep seeing that smile. The blond knight felt blood rush to his cheeks at that realization, _no, I don't like Ruby like _that _do I?_

(Indigo's POV)

Indigo was walking down the halls of Beacon when he came across a familiar bow-topped head of long black hair. Blake was sitting between the wall and a pillar, with her back to the wall, her knees drawn up to her chest, and her nose buried in a book, the title of which was concealed by a brown paper dust cover. Just for the heck of it Indigo took a look under the dust cover with his Semblance, the book was Ninjas of Love, and the faint blush on the Faunus girl's cheeks told him all he needed to know about it's subject matter.

"Enjoying yourself Kitten?" Blake jumped a foot in the air at the sound of Indigo's voice four feet away from her little niche, the now embarrassed girl glared at Indigo, who just grinned.

"Geez, you'd think a girl with cat ears would be harder to sneak up on, especially one who specializes in stealth combat herself." At that remark Blake moved, Indigo suddenly found himself slammed against a pillar with edge of a tanto pressed against his throat.

Ever the wiseass, Indigo's smile didn't fade, despite the blade pressed to his Adam's Apple. "You know, I've had fantasies that started pretty similarly to this, not about you of course, I hadn't met you at the time, but I'm willing to best you can say the same Miss 'Ninja's of Love'."

Blake blushed furiously as she glared at the cocky sniper. "How did you know about my ears, or-or my book." She stumbled slightly on her words as her embarrassment briefly eclipsed her anger, before once again giving way to anger.

"I can see through solid objects, it's my Semblance: Phase Vision. I've known about your ears since the day we arrived, don't worry, your secret is safe with me. I don't know why you're hiding what you are but you've presumably got a reason for it, so I won't pry. That said Kitten, could you please put the knife away? 'Cause I kinda like my neck the way it is." Indigo slowly raised his hand and pushed Blake's tanto away from his throat, she let him, slowly relaxing as she slipped the blade back up her sleeve.

"So... Do you always walk around with a knife up your sleeve, or was this just my lucky day?" Indigo asked, genuinely curious.

Blake shrugged. "A girl's got a right to defend herself." This didn't answer his question exactly, but Indigo accepted it as the only answer he would get.

"True, though most tend to carry something less lethal on them, then again most of those girls aren't kickass ninja Huntress trainees, so I suppose that's to be expected."

Blake smirked, then frowned. "Why do you keep calling me 'Kitten'?"

Indigo shrugged. "I give people nicknames, it's kinda my thing."

Blake snorted softly. "And here I thought being a wiseass was your 'thing'" The black haired ninja snarked.

Indigo found himself grinning, '_ah snark, how I have missed you so!'_ "It is, but so is the nickname giving, I like seeing people's reactions to them, it's fun."

As they talked the black haired ninja and blue haired sniper started walking down the hall together, though neither was in any hurry, they had both made a new friend.

(Weiss' POV)

Weiss Schnee was fuming as she hacked and stabbed at a training dummy with her rapier. The white haired heiress still hadn't gotten over her humiliating defeat at the hands of Indigo Aesir, but she had at least taken his advice to heart. "_There's no use getting angry about it, just get stronger so that it doesn't happen again."_ Weiss growled and impaled the dummy through it's midsection.

The sound of a voice behind the heiress made her jump in shock. "You know, your problem won't be solved by hacking up dummies."

Weiss turned to glare at Indigo, who stood a good distance behind the heiress with his hands in his pockets and his sarcastic smirk firmly in place, though his eyes were serious and fixed on hers.

"Then what _is_ my 'problem' as you put it?" Weiss snapped.

"You lack practical experience, you are one of the most well trained fighters I've ever met, but you fight like someone who has only ever had limited experience in real combat: You need to take time to line up your stance, you don't adapt well to sudden changes in your opponent's fighting style, you allow yourself to be provoked ridiculously easily, and you are completely predictable." Indigo's voice was neutral, he was simply answering her question honestly and without even a trace of mockery in his speech, but as he added each new criticism Weiss felt heat rise up the back of her neck and into her cheeks, however she held herself back from snapping at Indigo because he was right, no matter how much it stung her pride to admit it. While she had been taught by excellent instructors she had precious little true experience outside of regulated sparring, and against someone with real life combat experience she was at a distinct disadvantage, that much was clear from her sparring match with Indigo.

The blue haired sniper stood silently, waiting it seemed, for her to speak. "T-that may be true, but it means that there is no way to improve myself other than to gain experience, which I will certainly gain over the course of the school year."

"Or, alternatively, you can learn to improve yourself by accepting the advice of someone who has considerably more experience than you do, and I'm talking about personal tutor, not a professor, sure it's their job to train us, but they only have so much time they can spare for individual students."

"I assume you have a suggestion for a good candidate?"

"Me, of course, I'm going to take a stab in the dark that you wouldn't want other people to know that you're receiving extra training, and I do fit the bill, on top of that I'm a trained observer, so I can find the holes in your fighting that you need patched."

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Is there anyone _else_ you'd recommend?"

Indigo shrugged, though his smirk didn't fade. "Blake, Ren, maybe Noctus, though he'd most likely refuse."

Weiss frowned. "Not Pyrrha?"

"Nope, while I'm sure your skills would improve dramatically under her tutelage she has the same problem you do in a way, her tournament experience is impressive and her abilities as a fighter are undeniably incredible, but just from seeing her one fight in combat class I can tell she fights like she's in a tournament match, not real combat, her flaws are different from yours and overshadowed by her strengths, but they are there."

"Fine, we can try this idea of yours, but if you annoy me too much I'm going to ask Blake to take your place." The icy heiress' warning barely seemed to faze Indigo.

"Whatever you say Snowy."

Weiss felt her eye start to twitch, she had the distinct impression that he was just going to test the limits of her patience for no other reason than because he _could_. Idly, the white haired girl wondered what it said about her that she was already starting to get used to him.

* * *

(AN: Sorry for the wait, please read, review, and enjoy for those of you who simply skipped to the latest chapter please check the author's note at the end of chapter six for a minor retcon update.)


	12. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight: Shadows and Gold

(Tracker's POV)

She stepped off the airship and onto the sovereign soil of the Kingdom of Vale, not literal soil of course, there wasn't much of that visible for miles, no, the Tracker stepped onto tar, concrete, and the steel of the sky port. Despite her apparently young age the Tracker wasn't someone who attracted much attention. Vibrant red hair cut to a tight cap with the fringes just above her jaws and two points that extended slightly past her chin, combined with olive skin and clear blue eyes marked her as of Mistrali descent. Her small height and petite frame completed the look that made her seem younger than her actual age and had caused many enemies to underestimate her, the last mistake most of them ever made.

The Tracker retrieved her luggage, which consisted of a single duffel bag, containing money, an ID, and all the available information her superiors had seen fit to give her about her target as well as her weapon, Executor, which she hadn't been allowed to keep with her for "security reasons". Once reunited with her bag she stood for a second, enjoying the warm wind that was a pleasant contrast to the constant chill that permeated Atlas, where she'd been stationed until Leader's encrypted text had sent her to Vale. The Tracker retrieved the sheathed single edged shortsword with a bent hilt and secured the sheathe in the metal clip at the small of her back, there was an empty trigger guard under Executor's guard. Nobody gave the apparently young girl strapping a deadly weapon to her back a second glance, the sky port was less than a mile from a minor combat school and everyone was used to the sight of students walking around armed. The Tracker pulled out the ID she'd been issued, it sported a photo of her own unsmiling face as well as the usual basic info found on ID cards including the certification stamp given by combat schools to allow their students to go armed into the general populace, hers labelled her as a student at a small but somewhat well known school in Mistral. Other than the weapon certification, the birth date, age and name were the only things falsified, her new name was Cinnamon Zessica, the age listed was fourteen. The newly dubbed Cinnamon dropped the fake ID back into her bag and faded into the crowd.

(Yang's POV)

Yang Xiao Long was bored, viciously, suffocatingly, mind meltingly _bored_, though to be fair so was everyone else, Professor Port was just that dull. _Seriously,_ mused the blonde brawler, _did the man _ever _think about something other than himself?_ After the fifth straight lesson that boiled down to "The Marvelous Tales of Professor Peter Port", of which he seemed to have an infinite amount, Yang found herself so conditioned to the boredom that all it took was for the portly (heh heh) professor's moustache to twitch, signalling that he was about to spout bombastically, for Yang's eyelids to droop on pure reflex and her lilac eyes to glaze over in anticipation of the pure horrific dullness that was the Grimm Studies Professor. The only bright spots in Grimm studies class were the other students, in particular Ruby (of course), Indigo, and Lie Ren, the green clad martial artist only made the list because Yang got to sit directly behind him, in a prime position to peep at that perfect butt of his, seriously, you could bounce a Lien coin off of that puppy, and it was the right size and shape too, thin and sculpted, just like the rest of him. Unfortunately Ren was in the "look but don't touch" category of her mental filing system, she liked Nora and wasn't about to make a move on her man like that, she was a perverted joker, not a total bitch, and Nora needed someone who could handle her "intense" personality. Such scruples had no bearing on partaking in the eye candy feast that was the stoic gunman of Team JNPR however, so partake she did. An elbow to the ribs jolted the exuberant blonde from her trance, drawing her attention to the mildly amused yellow eyes of her partner.

"Come on Yang, if you're finished undressing Ren with your eyes, class just ended." Blake's words took a second to break through the Port induced mental fog, but when they did the blonde brawler jerked straight and felt her cheeks grow warm.

"I-I wasn't.." The blonde stammered, before trailing off at the raven haired girl's disbelieving eyebrow quirk.

"Right... And if I believe that you've got a bridge in Vacuo you want to sell me, right?" The bow wearing ninja's snarky comeback took Yang off guard, her brain still catching up to her thoughts after being so suddenly woken.

"Wait... Isn't Vacuo all desert?"

Blake rolled her eyes and her mouth twitched into a tiny, self satisfied smirk that had Yang briefly reminded of a similar expression on the cat she'd owned as a kid. "Exactly."

Yang grinned at the other girl and slung an arm over her shoulders. "Nice one partner, you got me good. C'mon, let's go down to Vale and have some fun for our break!"

Blake, suddenly uncomfortable at the blonde's gesture of friendly affection tensed up and it was her turn to stutter.

"U-uhm a-actually I was planning to..." Yang interrupted whatever alternative to hanging out with her Blake had been about to suggest, likely finding a quiet corner and reading the smut the quieter girl didn't know Yang knew about.

"Nope! You're coming with me partner, I need to vent some frustration before it starts really building up, and the best ways I know to do that are fighting and shopping."

Yang saw Blake's amber eyes light up with a small flicker of hope. "Then why don't we..."

Once again Yang cut her off. "Nope! As much fun as a good dust up with you might be the practice arenas are all booked for the day by the third years, besides, we've been partners for nearly a week and we haven't spent time together other than at meals, this is clearly an inexcusable lapse in communication! Weiss and Ruby spend more time together than we do, and I refuse to be beaten by the Ice Queen at socialization! Plus I'm bored as all hell and you seem like you might be fun to be around, I wonder what you'd be like if I got you drunk...?" Yang's grip on her Partner's shoulders loosened as her mind wandered through the possibility of a drunk Blake, only for the subject of her musings to take advantage of the lapse and pull out of the brawler's grasp.

"Yang! You are not going to be getting me drunk okay?"

Yang sighed in slightly dramatized defeat, before instantly bouncing back. "So does that mean you're gonna go with me then? C'mon Blakey, Don't leave me Yanging!" The audible groan that escaped her partner had Yang grinning. A lot of people simply didn't get the genius of her sense of humor, but that didn't bother her in the slightest, the blonde brawler was secure in the knowledge that she'd eventually break them all down and bring them over to her side of the humor fence.

"*sigh* Fine... I'll go with you, if only to stop you from pestering me about it." Blake finally succumbed to the force of Yang's personality and the knowledge that Yang would indeed keep bothering her until she got what she wanted.

(Blake's POV, about twenty minutes later)

Blake's partner was a force of nature, the incognito Faunus girl still wasn't exactly sure how she ended up being dragged into the Vale City Mall. More specifically Blake was utterly baffled as to exactly how she had ended up clothes shopping with Yang Xiao Long, well... okay, she knew _how_ it had happened, the only real mystery was why in the name of Dust Blake hadn't run for her life yet.

You see, when Blake agreed to go shopping with Yang she'd thought they'd go down into town and patron a few shops, maybe buy a few small items, then go back to Beacon. This being Yang Blake had been prepared to flit from shop to shop until Yang had gotten bored of looking at shiny nik-naks. This assumption was very, almost _hilariously_ wrong on every level. The instant they stepped off the airship and onto Vale's skyport Yang grabbed Blake's hand, and displaying none of the directionless excitement Blake had anticipated Yang practically dragged Blake to the intracity bus station despite the loud objections levelled by the dark haired ninja. The bus was cramped, hot, and stunk like old tobacco and things Blake really didn't want to contemplate. The disgusting bus stopped three times to let people off before Yang told Blake that their stop was next, the stench was so bad Blake didn't question her partner, she just wanted off the bus. Thus it was that when the pair stepped out in front of the Vale City Mall and the weight of dread settled into Blake's stomach it was far too late to run.

The Vale City Mall was huge, but Yang didn't seem daunted in the least, not so Blake, who was rapidly coming to regret caving to the force of her partner's personality.

"C'mon Bellabooty let's get to some serious shopping." Yang plowed over the disguised Faunus' sputters at the new nickname.

"E-excuse me?!" Blake most certainly did _not_ yelp, and she _definitely_ didn't blush over that _stupidly ridiculous_ nickname. "What did you just call me Yang?"

That damned blonde brawler shot Blake a mischievous grin that had Blake very afraid, _very VERY afraid._ The blonde brawler dragged the ninja cat girl through the doors completely ignoring the darker girl's protests.

(Weiss' POV)

Weiss Schnee was by no means a religious person. Atlas, the Kingdom of her birth, was dedicated to progress and had very little time for such outdated notions. Her father had summarily squashed any lingering sentiments in all three of his daughters after their mother died, saying that foolish ideals were mere hindrances in the world of business. Thus, it was with an odd mix of shame, annoyance, and desperation that the middle Schnee sister found herself turning her ice blue eyes to the heavens with but one thought dominating her prodigious mind: _Dear Monty, why do I always end up running into this dunce?_

"You know Ice Cream, rolling your eyes like that just causes eye strain." The cocky, self-assured drawl so characteristic of Indigo Aesir rolled over the heiress leaving behind the slightest of shivers down her spine, before immediately being replaced by extreme annoyance.

"I know that Dunce, but your constant idiocy makes it _very_ hard to resist rolling my eyes every time you open your mouth, and what made you think that Ice Cream was in any way a good nickname?" The icy duelist snapped. Really, her day had been going so well before this, she'd aced the pop quiz Professor Peach had sprung on her class, she knew she had, so she'd decided to treat herself to an afternoon to herself (the choice to do so had not been influenced in any way by the fact that she had gotten tired of her teammates' hijinks, no sirree, indeed not, no... dammit! why couldn't she be better at lying to herself?), she'd gotten changed into casual clothes: A cute white and light blue sundress, a wide brimmed hat (it was the middle of June and her pale, delicate skin burned very easily) and strappy sandals with low silver wedge heels, she'd even decided to wear a little more makeup than usual, a little bit of light pink blush and some clear lipgloss in addition to her usual mascara and pale blue eyeshadow, just because she felt like it, which was itself a noticeable change from her lifestyle before Beacon. She'd then gone down to Vale and browsed some of the shops, nothing there was up to her Father's standards, but that didn't mean they didn't have any worthwhile wares. Unfortunately, just as Weiss was starting to feel hungry and was about to start looking for a quaint little cafe or restaurant to have lunch in who else had shown up but that grinning wiseass bane of her existence, also dressed in casual attire: black jeans and blue and white sneakers with a sky blue t-shirt that conformed slightly distractingly to his slender but toned chest and stomach under an open and untucked indigo button down shirt. (and it was _only_ _slightly_ distracting, Dust-dammit! Weiss Schnee would sooner drink liquified fire Dust than admit to even a moment's appreciation of the blue haired sniper's admittedly sculpted muscles, even if he _was _tall and a bit on the slender side, things she happened to like in a man... Wait, what was she even THINKING! This was Indigo, the biggest annoyance in her life, she could NOT be checking him out, that would just be WRONG!) Weiss decided to erase that thought process from her mind completely, while Indigo had actually adopted a genuinely contemplative expression, ignoring her brief space out.

"Well, I figured it fit you pretty well, I mean let's face it, you can be pretty cold when you want to be, but you've got a sweet side to you as well, I've seen how you've been acting around your partner."

Weiss could feel her face heat up. "I-I don't know what you're talking about."

A lopsided smile spread across the sniper's face. "Suuure you don't... You've been pestering Ruby to eat properly, nagging her to study more, and helping her to be more comfortable dealing with people in your own abrasively adorable way out of nothing but a whim, you _absolutely_ haven't become fond of her, and you _certainly_ wouldn't have, even for an instant, compared her to your own younger sister." The good natured sarcasm in his voice was palpable. Weiss felt the warmth in her cheeks graduate into a full on burning sensation as she spluttered indignantly for a few seconds before managing to calm herself. He was right of course, she had been spending the past week trying to make up for her harsh attitude on the first day. She opened her mouth and was about to respond when her stomach growled audibly, reminding her of what she'd been about to do before she'd gotten hooked into this conversation. At the sound of Weiss' growling digestive tract Indigo's lopsided smile widened, and before the white clad heiress could object he had swept up beside her and was guiding her along with a hand at the small of her back. "Hungry huh? Well I suppose you wouldn't know the area very well, being from Atlas and all, however you're in luck! I've lived in Vale for the past three years, and there's an _excellent_ little Mistrali restaurant a couple blocks away, lunch is on me Princess."

Weiss was almost too surprised to object to being herded like a lost sheep, but she managed to stutter out a response anyway. "Wha-who-huh? Stop pushing me! And I can pay for my own lunch thank you very much!"

Indigo chuckled lightly as he dropped his hand and allowed Weiss to fall into step beside him at a more comfortable pace. "Sorry, got a little carried away, but I'm paying M'Lady, that is non-negotiable, I know you could probably buy the restaurant if you wanted, but when was the last time a guy paid for your meal other than your father?"

Weiss didn't answer, all of the "dates" she'd been set up on by her father with various suitors who could increase the family's wealth and influence had ended with her, the heiress to the Schnee fortune, paying for everything, except for a few infrequent and meaningless gifts meant to curry favor with her father more than to please her. Even during the few dates she'd gone on of her own volition they had at most split the check. A guy paying for both of them, simply because he thought that it was the right thing to do, was new... and surprisingly gratifying, even a little sweet, though she would never _ever_ admit that out loud, Indigo's ego was big enough on it's own and didn't need any help from her.

"A-alright, fine, but don't get any funny ideas about this being a date, because it isn't!" Weiss asserted, even as her face grew warmer.

Indigo, for his part responded with the predictable cocky smirk. "Of course it isn't Miss Schnee, if I were taking you on a date I'd have put a hell of a lot more effort into it, and you'd be worth every minute of it."

Weiss rolled her eyes and tried to ignore the heat rising up her neck.

The restaurant was a tiny out of the way hole in the wall, though the tables and chairs were all old and shabby looking everything had been lovingly cleaned and polished. Indigo opened the door for Weiss and she stepped through, followed quickly by the sniper himself as the tinkling of a small bell announced their arrival.

"Let's take a seat, our waitress should be out in a few minutes." Indigo pointed a small two person table against the wall, where the pair sat down facing each other. A young girl with large green eyes, elbow length brown hair and dusky skin stepped up to their table with a welcoming smile and a small notebook.

"Hi! My name's Brandi and I'll be your server this afternoon. Here are your menus, now would you like some drinks to start off with?" The girl's voice was cheerful, matching her wide smile. The pair ordered their drinks: two Schnee Cola's, both regular, which Indigo raised an eyebrow at, though didn't comment on. Weiss' cheeks felt a little warmer, while she would normally have watched her weight this afternoon was meant to be a relaxation period, and she wouldn't have been relaxed if she'd been keeping an eye on what she ate, so she shrugged in mild embarrassment at Indigo's wordless and evidently amused, surprise.

Then he had to go ruin it by wiggling his eyebrows suggestively, she kicked him under the table, though unwillingly she felt a small smile pull at the corners of her mouth, _that dunce_.

Since they were sitting across from each other and Indigo had evidently decided to tone down his normal teasing, at least temporarily, Weiss decided to engage her companion in conversation, besides this would be a good opportunity to find out more about Indigo without being made fun of.

"So, Indigo, why did you choose to become a Huntsman?" Weiss wasn't sure what exactly happened next, it had been a simple question, however it was as if a shutter had slammed down behind his eyes, his expression and posture didn't change, but the light in his eyes dimmed and the eyes themselves seemed to darken with an unknown emotion. "I want to save as many lives as I can."

The answer was simple, and far more mature than she'd expected, but the tone of Indigo's voice made it clear that this line of conversation was closed, _hard._ Almost immediately the wisecracking sniper blinked and the metaphorical shutters vanished completely, the light returned to his eyes and his smile took on a crooked, cocky tilt, though this time Weiss could recognise it for the mask it was, her question had stirred up old hurts that weren't fully healed, and Weiss found herself feeling bad about that. Even though he was annoying and flirtatious he had offered to help her improve herself without hesitation or reservation, he had been blunt and critical while he'd pointed out weaknesses she hadn't even noticed in herself, but he hadn't done it to mock her, rather out of a genuine desire to help her become stronger, to help her _survive_, she owed him, which was not exactly a welcome concept.

Their drinks arrived and the pair lapsed into lighter conversation topics, they had totally divergent tastes in music (she liked classical, opera, and some light rock, while he enjoyed everything from classic rock to heavy metal), but enjoyed many of the same books (she had been shocked to learn that he was quite knowledgeable of Atlesian classical literature, though his tastes ran somewhat more modern than hers, Weiss rarely read a story written sooner than forty years ago, while Indigo enjoyed old books he also liked a great number of new works). On top of his wiseass tendencies Indigo loved puzzles and challenges in general, he also had a (in her opinion) slightly unhealthy love of Hot Pockets, which Weiss found baffling. All in all, when Indigo wasn't trying to annoy her he could apparently be quite good company, as strange as that thought might be to her.

Brandi turned up several minutes later to take their orders, Weiss ordered a light shrimp scampi, Indigo got Farfalle pasta with sausages and peppers. While they waited for their meals the pair continued their chat, at one point Weiss leaned forward, wrapped her lips around her straw, and was about to take a sip of her soda when she noticed Indigo stiffen slightly, his eyes flickering from hers down to her mouth before darkening slightly as he noticeably dragged them back up to her eyes, his ears turned red and he looked away immediately when he saw that she'd noticed. Weiss kicked Indigo in the shin and blushed herself, she wasn't interested in Indigo, he was too immature and infuriating for her tastes, but even so she wasn't unaffected by an intelligent and attractive, if annoying (very _very_ annoying) guy showing a clear attraction to her, even if it _was_ just hormones. Neither teenager commented on the moment, they simply sat in silence for a moment.

"So where did all this come from?" It was Weiss who broke the increasingly awkward silence, the blue haired sniper cocked his head in confusion so Weiss clarified, in her own blunt way.

"Why are you buying me lunch and acting like you've recently developed a sense of maturity?"

Indigo flinched jokingly and smirked. "Ouch, do you really think I'm that immature, Snow Queen? I'm hurt, truly _hurt_ by your low opinion of me. I know you won't believe me but I'll have you know I'm far more mature than you'd think. But on a more serious note, do I really need a reason to treat a gorgeous young woman to lunch? Besides, I've been needling and messing with you for nearly a week, I figured you'd prefer a nice day for once."

Weiss blinked, the response had taken her off guard, not the snark, that she'd learned to expect whenever Indigo opened his mouth, or even the flirting, that too she'd come to expect, but the fact that he had genuinely decided to help her have a good day for no other reason than because he'd thought she needed one, _that_ had thrown her for a loop, though in a good way she supposed, however that didn't change her response, spoken with her most haughty expression in place. "You're right... I don't believe you're as mature as you say." Indigo actually laughed out loud and the pair shared a brief grin, before Weiss averted her eyes and turned bright red from embarrassment, _where had that come from?_

Their food arrived and the duo left off talking in favor of their meals, Indigo hadn't been lying about this place's quality, Weiss noted, the shrimp scampi really was excellent. Her enjoyment must have shown on her face because her companion had given her a knowing smirk after her first forkful of pasta, Weiss rolled her eyes in response.

Once they'd finished their meals Weiss reached for her purse, only for Indigo to shake his head, one finger raised in protest.

"Don't even think about it, I'm paying for this little excursion, don't make me a liar as well as a scoundrel." There was a small ring of purple inside Indigo's dark blue irises, which became visible when his pupils contracted in the beginnings of frustration which promptly vanished when she stopped reaching for her wallet and accepted that Indigo was going to pay for their meal, whether she wanted him to or not, and she didn't really want him to. That boy could be almost as stubborn as Xiao Long, it was no wonder those two were such good friends.

Once the meal had been paid for Weiss and Indigo headed for the air dock. In order to make the next airship back to Beacon the pair cut through a couple alleys that Indigo insisted would halve their journey, it seemed to be working, at least until a skinny, dirty haired man stepped in front of them with a knife.

"Alright Blue, you and your girlfriend hand over your money or I'll give her another scar on that pretty face of hers." The man growled in what he evidently thought was a threatening manner, neither Beacon student was remotely intimidated, Indigo smirked and rolled his eyes at the idiot.

"Oh no, what will we do? He's got a knife, Honey I think we should just give him what he wants." Indigo's voice was dryer than the average weather in Vacuo and his smirk remained unchanged as he flicked a glance over at Weiss, asking without words "_Do you want to or should I?"_

Weiss just sighed and gestured for him to go ahead, she didn't feel like taking down some random mugger with a knife sharper than his wits. Indigo's smirk widened into a grin.

"You know Weiss-y, I've always wondered people still try to rob pedestrians in this neighborhood, I mean their chances of running across Beacon students are astronomical." With barely a hitch in his casual dialogue, the blue sniper stepped into the mugger's personal space faster than the poor fool could react, grabbed the man's knife hand, stomped on the man's instep, and flipped him onto the asphalt, with one foot on the man's spine, and the knife hand twisted back at a painful angle. "I mean seriously, it's like they _want_ to get beaten up, you know?" With that the blue haired sniper stole the mugger's knife and let him go, the terrified ex-mugger took one look at Indigo casually playing with the slender switchblade and ran like his life depended on it.

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Are you done playing yet Aesir? We've got an airship to catch."

"As the Lady requests." There was something smoldering behind that smirk that had warmth bloom again on the back of Weiss' neck and high on her cheeks, _stupid hormones_ Weiss cursed internally, she'd kick his ass later during their sparring, that would wipe that infuriating smirk of his face for sure.

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(Author's Note: Finally, we've got the first major villain entering the stage, some fun Blake and Yang screentime, and some actual progress in my primary romance subplot, as always, read, review and enjoy!)


	13. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine: Cold Rain

(Noctus' POV)

Noctus was getting antsy, class was almost invariably uninteresting, his partner and leader was busy following that Schnee bitch with his tongue so far out of his mouth it was a wonder he hadn't stepped on it yet, and he was having trouble locating the next Fangbreaker hideout. The wolf eared ax man was walking down the hallway to the library when a shadow detached itself from behind a pillar, Noctus whirled to face whoever it was, ready to activate his Semblance if the shadow attacked. Diana Grey stood half in, half out of shadow, her brown eyes were the only part of her that was noticeably expressing any emotion, and they were alive with suspicion.

"What do you want Grey?" Noctus didn't really have anything against his teammate, but that didn't mean that the two of them were friendly. Something flashed through the Dust witch's eyes, amusement? Noctus wasn't sure.

"Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing." Noctus could count the number of times he'd heard Diana speak more than three words on one hand, and not use all the fingers, but here she was, apparently fishing for information.

"Really." The Winter Wolf's voice was carefully neutral as he surveyed his companion. She wore her school uniform, but held herself as if she was ready to attack anything around her at the slightest sign of hostile motion.

"Really. I may not have anything against you personally, but when the people around me are keeping secrets it makes me paranoid, so you're going to tell me what you're looking for and why, or I'll find out myself and make sure you'll never succeed."

Noctus snarled, how dare this _Human_ try to blackmail him, his already delicate mental state strained as his mission was threatened. For a full four seconds Noctus Lupin seriously considered committing murder, it wouldn't be terribly difficult, Diana was a small, slight figure with no visible weapons on her, he could just grab her and snap her neck.

Noctus stopped, he blinked, _had he seriously just been thinking about killing his own teammate?_ The revelation startled him out of his rage, it almost made him sick, he was becoming what he hated, and that was something he could _never_ allow.

Noctus gritted his teeth, fine, if Diana wanted to know so badly he'd tell her, she didn't trust the law any more than he did so he wasn't worried that she'd turn him over to the police. "I'm searching for Fangbreaker bases."

Diana's face didn't betray even a flicker of emotion. "Why? Never mind, I can guess what a Faunus wants with those psychos, are you working for the White Fang, or is this a solo endeavour?"

"Solo, I wouldn't be caught _dead_ with that gang of self-important traitors." The sheer venom in Noctus' voice actually caused Diana to blink in surprise. When he was twelve and his sister was five their parents had been killed in one of the first of the newly violent White Fang's attacks. Someone had opened fire into a crowd of Faunus Rights protesters, later the Fang had claimed responsibility and claimed that the protests were just the weak whining of those too cowardly to claim their rightful place by force. Eleven people, Humans and Faunas, had been hit. Seven died, including Gentian and Carbuncle Lupin, ages 35 and 32 respectively. Noctus would sooner eat pure ice Dust than spit in the same direction as a White Fang operative, much less work alongside one.

(Diana's POV)

Diana didn't relax until her wolf eared teammate had stalked off, and even then all she did was stop gripping the electric Dust crystal in the left pocket of her maroon school-issue blazer. Diana Grey was never truly relaxed. A beeping noise had her checking her Scroll, the message was from Indigo Aesir: "_Team INGO, meet at our dorm for a team meeting, be there ASAP. -Your Awesome Leader."_ Diana snorted at the last bit, was there _anything_ Aesir could be serious about? She was about to learn that there were some things Indigo was VERY serious about.

(Indigo's POV)

Indigo was sitting on his bed, tapping his foot rapidly on the floor, when his teammates stepped into INGO's dorm room. The blue haired sniper didn't rise to meet them, he just sat and stared at the three Hunters in training he was expected to trust with his life, but didn't. It was only when they had all taken seats that the normally wisecracking teen spoke, and he did so in a level, reasonable tone.

"Alright, I've called you guys here to say that the grace period is up."

All three teammates' faces reflected confusion, but Indigo raised his hand to forestall the verbalization of that confusion.

"I let you guys do your own thing for one week, I'd kind of hoped that you would have at least talked to each other, since talking to anyone else would be too much to ask, but you couldn't even do that. Well, guess what? My time staying on the sidelines of this team is over, for the next four years we are going to be literally putting our lives in eachother's hands, and in order to do that we must be mutually respectful peers, even if we can't manage proper friendships, we are going to trust each other as much as we are able, and that means getting to know each other."

Obsidian let out a loud, derisive snort. "This is bullshit, I'm leaving, I made my opinion on this team shit clear during initiation: you stay out of my way, I stay out of yours." The heterochromatic swordsman stood and reached for the door, only to jerk his hand back as a knife slammed point first into the portal, an inch from his fingers. Obsidian whirled to find Indigo fiddling with a second knife, a slender switchblade, just like the one he'd thrown into the door, indigo eyes locked on his subordinate, expression impassive.

"Your opinion on teamwork is going to have to change then, because if you get anyone else injured or killed with that lone wolf act I'll kill you myself, is that clear?" The sniper's voice was bland, almost devoid of emotion, but all three of his teammates recognized the fractured, half-mad light in his eyes, it was, with only one exception, the exact same light that often greeted them in the mirror every morning. For the first time the N G and O of INGO realized that they had badly misjudged their habitually wisecracking leader, they had assumed that because of his carefree behavior and near constant cheer he was just a fool with some combat skill. They were seeing under the mask right then, and what they saw was a mind and soul just as cracked, dirtied, and broken as any of theirs, Indigo was just better at hiding it from the rest of the world.

"I don't expect us to become the best of friends, or blood brothers or whatever, but I will do whatever I need to to ensure that the four of us survive long enough to graduate, and I will ensure that the four of us come out of every mission we go on together alive, that's my job, it's what I _need_ to do, I can't live with myself if I don't at least try to save everyone I can, that includes all of you as well. If keeping you all alive requires me to drag you out of your shells kicking and screaming the whole way, then that is what I'll do, I truly hope it doesn't come to that, so once a week I'm going to organize an event or activity that we will do as a team, I might even invite Teams RWBY and JNPR along with us, just to get you all out of your comfort zones."

It was Diana who spoke up in response to that declaration, her arms were crossed and a combative expression was slashed across her face. "How is being all buddy-buddy going to help us survive? I'm calling bullshit on the whole thing."

Indigo turned his attention to the Dust Witch. "And how do you expect to work together effectively if we can't trust that the others will be in place, or if we can't anticipate each other's moves, or any number of other things that can only come from prolonged exposure to a person? Like it or not, and I'm more than aware that you fall in the 'not' category nearly always, Diana, we're going to die before we graduate if we can't do those things and more."

Without another word the blue sniper retracted the blade on the knife he'd been fiddling with, stowing the weapon up the sleeve of his school uniform blazer. Just before he stepped out into the hall Indigo retrieved the knife he'd lodged in the door, in a second it joined it's twin up his opposite sleeve.

(Tracker's POV)

The young woman whose ID called her Cinnamon Zessica stepped through the doors to the old unused apartment building her comrades were hiding out in and made her way towards the room they were using for the meeting. Aqua light flowed over her form like water as she strode confidently into the base. Had anyone been within line of sight with her they would have seen something very strange: the small red haired girl, who looked nearly five years younger than her actual eighteen years melted away like a layer of ice under a stream of hot water. The Tracker who appeared when the light had faded was at least five inches taller, with high and delicate cheekbones, a slender nose and full lips quirked into the ghost of a gained definition and curves appeared, even her clothes changed from simple jeans and a brown t-shirt to knee high black leather shorts and a bronze top with one strap on her left shoulder, leaving the right bare and revealing a black Fangbreaker tattoo on her right shoulder blade, the bottom of the garment tapered to a point just below her waist down the middle, the sides rose to halfway up her toned middle, leaving the tops of her hips bare, finally the previously short red hair fell in a blazing cascade to her waist, just barely covering Executor in it's sheath, the only part of the shapeshifter that hadn't changed in the slightest, the blade was still sheathed horizontally across her back, the hilt was clear of the river of hair, ready for an instant draw just in case.

Without knocking, the Tracker barged into the office, immediately all conversation stopped as every one of the twelve people in the dilapidated apartment turned to look at her. A predatory smirk spread across the Tracker's face as she spoke to the gathered brethren to begin the meeting without so much as a word of greeting. "May the fangs of beasts always shatter before the iron fist of Man."

The men all spoke the response in one voice. "May our enemies cower before the strident voice of Humanity." The Tracker took a seat on an empty stool and the meeting began.

(Obsidian's POV)

Obsidian Thanos, volatile swordsman of Beacon's Team INGO, was fuming with unexpressed rage as he stalked along the courtyard, he didn't have classes for another two hours, so he'd decided to take a walk, it wasn't calming him down any. _CRACK!_ The sound of the rifle shot caused the young man to jump in shock. When a second shot rang he started trying to locate the sound, the third shot had him moving in the direction of the sounds all the way to Beacon Cliff, where a familiar slender form topped with multi-shaded blue hair lay in the grass, the wicked sniper rifle nestled against his left shoulder was aimed over the side of the cliff sending Dust propelled slugs down into the forest below.

Indigo Aesir didn't turn to look at Obsidian, he simply snapped off a shot, which the swordsman watched tear a hole through a Beowolf far below, the Grimm hater felt a twinge of satisfaction as the beast dropped to the ground and started emitting smoke. Then the sniper spoke.

"You're not the only one who hates them. You know..."

Obsidian's gaze snapped over to take in the sniper, Indigo wasn't looking at him, his eyes were clouded over, lost in a memory, this didn't prevent Indigo from continuing. "The Grimm: if it was up to me I'd burn them all alive, maybe I'd be able to sleep without nightmares if I did, I could stop hearing their voices telling me what a coward I am..." The last part of that had been under his breath, but Obsidian could still hear it. Like flipping a switch the haunted expression that had been creeping onto Indigo's face vanished and his typical sarcastic smirk reappeared. Obsidian's leader rolled over, then flipped onto his feet and brushed grass off his armored leather jacket. Before he walked away, the sniper stopped next to Obsidian and made one final point.

"Thanos, if there's one person that you know who can understand your hatred it's me, work with me on and off the battlefield and I'll make sure you'll get to kill Grimm whenever I can provide an opportunity to do so. However, our duty is to the people of Vale and Remnant as a whole, that is far more important than any revenge, and you will carry out that duty, it's the job we chose when we enrolled, and we're going to do it, understood?"

Obsidian nodded, suddenly wondering why he felt like he was standing in the middle of a thunderstorm. As Indigo walked off the sensation faded and the Grimm hating swordsman suppressed a shiver, despite his usual attitude Indigo Aesir was not someone to take lightly, he was focused, and Obsidian knew more than nearly anyone how dangerous a focused mind could be, nothing short of death would stop such a person from accomplishing his goals, Obsidian should know, he was exactly the same.

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(Author's Note: Sorry for the wait, I hope you all enjoy this new exciting installment of INdiGO Dreams, please leave a review, flamers will be ignored)


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